About 60 families in sitio Proper in barangay Vive, Ronda town, west Cebu, were urged to evacuate after geologists found longer, wider cracks in two of the highest mountains in the area.<\/p>\n
But Ronda Mayor Mariano \u201cNonie\u201d Blanco III said there was no hurry to evacuate unless\u00a0 there is a formal recommendation from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).<\/p>\n
Blanco said the three-kilometer crack seen in the mountains was observed there\u00a0 since last year following heavy downpours, which hit the town located 81.5 kilometers southwest of Cebu City.<\/p>\n
Blanco said the cracks could have widened after\u00a0 Monday’s earthquake, but he has not seen it. MGB geologists inspected the site and saw the cracks.<\/p>\n
Only the narrow path crossed by residents to head to their homes and farms had short, shallow cracks.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, residents placed pieces of wood in some of the cracks that they found too big to jump across.<\/p>\n
One resident said a\u00a0 neighbor’s dog fell through the cracks and disappeared.\u00a0 The\u00a0 cracks are so\u00a0 deep residents can\u2019t see the bottom.<\/p>\n
The MGB carried out a forced evacuation of four families living close to the mountain last Friday after viewing\u00a0 aerial footage of TV Patrol Central Visayas showing long and deep cracks in the mountains.<\/p>\n
Senior geologist Maria Elena Lupo said most of the cracks were old and the 6.9-magnitude\u00a0 earthquake last Monday only widened it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it rains heavily and the faults will be filled with water, it can easily make the land weak and cause a landslide. It is something that we don’t want to happen, so we recommend that the residents evacuate immediately,\u201d Lupo said.<\/p>\n
But Mayor Blanco said the cracks, located one kilometer from the nearest residential area, were a familiar sight and residents don’t see it as alarming.<\/p>\n
The mayor said disaster relief personnel who went to check barangay Vive after the quake didn’t mention the need to declare the barangay a calamity area.\u00a0 The team reported cracks in at least five structures in barangay Vive.<\/p>\n
An evaluation is in progress, said Blanco.<\/p>\n
Blanco said that if an evacuation is ordered, the municipal government would have to find a relocation site and look for\u00a0 material assistance to help\u00a0 families rebuild their homes elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Barangay Vive has 200 households with about 1,000\u00a0 persons.<\/p>\n
Barangay captain Canuto Sabio said their chapel along the provincial road can be used as an\u00a0 evacuation center.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut our problem really is that the residents don’t want to stay in an\u00a0 evacuation center. They would come here at night but would leave in the morning to work in their farms,\u201d Sabio said. With Correspondent Jhunnex Napallacan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
About 60 families in sitio Proper in barangay Vive, Ronda town, west Cebu, were urged to evacuate after geologists found longer, wider cracks in two of the highest mountains in the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1242,1227],"tags":[375,370,1407],"byline":[190493],"source":[206068],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n