6.8 quake in Philippines kills 43, buries
homes
Published on Feb 6, 2012
Workers and students run after they feel the magnitude 6.7 earthquake along a main street of Honkera, Cebu city, central
Philippines on Feb 6, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
MANILA (AFP) - A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the central Philippines on Monday,
killing at least 43 people and causing widespread panic, officials said.
The powerful quake hit in a narrow strait between the heavily populated island provinces of Negros and
Cebu, causing buildings to collapse, cracking roads and bridges, and shutting down the power supply.
In Cebu city, a popular tourist destination and city of 2.3 million, hotel guests scrambled to higher floors as
unfounded rumours that a huge tsunami was bearing down spread by text message.
At least 29 were killed by landslides while 10 others were crushed by collapsing buildings in the
mountainous town of of Guihulngan in Negros, said regional military official Colonel Francisco
Patrimonio.
There was also an undetermined number of wounded, he added.
'Some private homes collapsed along with our court house and parts of the public market. We got people
out of the buildings but we could not evacuate the homes,' police chief Senior Inspector Alvin Futalan told
AFP.
Four other people were killed in other parts of Negros which also suffered widespread power outages and
cracked roads and bridges, hampering rescue efforts, Col Patrimonio told reporters.
'Looting is now rampant in Guihulngan which forced us to commit (more troops) with the Philippine
national police,' the colonel added.
Civil defence chief Benito Ramos said the violent shaking of buildings in Cebu city - 50km from the
epicentre - led to broken windows and cracks on some walls even if no high rises sustained major damage.
Local residents said there was panic in the country's second-biggest city, but there were no immediate
reports of casualties or major damage there.
'There is news going around of tsunami waves, so we are doing our best to keep everybody calm,' Mr
Barbi Patino, a spokesman for the 17-storey Parklane International Hotel in Cebu told AFP.
Mr Pedro Baldomino, a student in Cebu, said he saw many office workers in downtown Cebu leaving their
buildings after a public announcement on radio warned people to brace for expected aftershocks.
'I was having lunch when the ground shook. Water spilled from glasses and plates clanked. Some of the
diners rushed outside, some of us stayed underneath the tables,' he said.
Philippine government seismologists earlier raised a precautionary tsunami alert over the quake, but
lowered it two hours later.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said there was no danger of a widespread destructive
tsunami.
Almost four hours after the quake struck, a strong 6.2-magnitude aftershock hit the central Philippines
again, panicking rescuers once more.
The Philippines sits on the Pacific 'Ring of Fire' - a belt around the Pacific Ocean where friction between
shifting tectonic plates causes frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity.
Australian floods force thousands from their
homes
Published on Feb 6, 2012
A photo taken on Feb 5, 2012 by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and released on Feb 6 shows Australian soldier Steve
Carter (right) assisting flood victims to evacuate to a RAAF Black Hawk helicopter from a property south of Charleville. -PHOTO: AFP
PERTH (REUTERS) - Thousands of Australians were forced from their homes on Monday because of
floods that have risen to record levels in some areas and killed one person, and authorities issued warnings
for more than a dozen rivers in Queensland and New South Wales states.
Australia's coal industry, which is concentrated in Queensland and New South Wales, was largely
unaffected, easing concern about a repeat of last year's disastrous floods that sent global coal prices soaring.
But heavy rain is expected to take a toll on the region's agriculture, particularly on cotton, sugarcane,
soybean and corn.
About 2,500 people were evacuated from the Queensland town of St George, where flooding is expected to
reach a record level of 14m or higher, state police said.
'We're hearing from people whose families have lived on the property for 100 or more years who've never
seen water in their homes who have now got water up to the roof,' Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told
Sky news.
'So we know that something that's never been seen before is on its way.'
St George was also hit in 2011, when flash floods across Queensland and New South Wales killed about
35 people, swamped 30,000 houses, and wiped out roads, bridges and rail lines.
The flooding across the two states this year has resulted in tens of thousands of people being cut off in the
last few days, with some having to battle with deadly snakes as they scrambled for dry ground.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has forecast that flooding will continue for weeks in some areas.
The town of Moree, the centre of the New South Wales' cotton industry was cut in half by record flood
waters, and some estimated that each farm in the area could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of
crops.
Australia is the world's largest coal exporter and accounts for roughly two-thirds of global trade of coking
coal, used for steel production. The 2011 floods pushed up global coal prices as production was brought to
a near standstill.
'The coal mines themselves are not experiencing any difficulties,' Queensland Resources Council chief
executive Michael Roche said.
'So far, the Queensland coal industry, as far as we are aware, has missed the flooding.'
On Friday, Whitehaven Coal said it had shut four mines because of heavy rain, but the mines were not
flooded and no equipment had been damaged.
Global miner Xstrata said there was no impact on its operations.
'It's business as usual,' spokesman Kathryn Lamond said.
But the industry was still concerned about disruption if there was no let-up in the rain and more flooding,
Roche said.
Many mines are still carrying significant volumes of water from last year's floods, so more heavy rain is a
danger.
Storm damage was estimated to have cut Australia's commodity-weighted economy's gross domestic
product growth (GDP) by A$20 billion (S$26.7 billion), or 1.5 per cent, in the 2010-2011 financial year.
Dam bursts in Bulgaria, floods village and
kills 3
Published on Feb 6, 2012
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - A dam in southern Bulgaria collapsed after heavy rain on Monday, flooding a
village and killing at least three elderly men, authorities said.
A 2.5m flood wave swept some 700 houses in the village of Bisser, near the Greek border, after the dam on
the Ivanovo reservoir collapsed, the civil defence chief Nikolai Nikolov said.
The country's civil defence warned that two other bigger dams in the region, Ivaylovgrad and Studena, are
on the brink of overflowing and urged people there to be ready for an evacuation.
Authorities declared a state of emergency in much of southern Bulgaria, which is experiencing heavy rain.
The mayor of Bisser, Zlatka Valkova, said that the bodies of three elderly men have been recovered from
the raging waters.
Landslides derailed the engine of an Istanbul-bound international train near the border town of Svilengrad,
causing no injuries but leaving at least a dozen foreigners stuck for hours, district governor Irena Uzunova
said.