Philippines quake leaves 10 million without electricity
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Cebu (Philippines), May 10: An earthquake which damaged a transmission tower and shut down four power plants left more than 10 million people in the Central Philippines without electricity today, officials and residents said. The relatively mild quake, measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale, struck the island of Leyte at 0732 hrs IST (10:02 am local time), the seismology office in Manila said, triggering a chain reaction of power generation units shutting down.
One transmission tower in Ormoc city was toppled, said National Transmission Corp President Alan Ortiz. No casualties were reported, the civil defense office in Manila said. The civil defence office as well as residents said the quake blacked out Cebu city, the country's second largest, the rest of Cebu island, as well as the neighboring islands of Leyte, Negros, Panay and Samar islands.
The islands are home to 10.8 million of the country's 85 million people. "Restoration efforts are now being undertaken to bring back power into the Visayas (central Philippines region) grid," Energy Undersecretary Melinda Ocampo said in a statement. Regional utilities have dispatched crews to inspect possible damage to distribution lines. "We hope to have the power restored within the day," Ortiz added.
The quake's epicenter was near Ormoc and caused the tripping of the Tongonan, Palinpinon, Mahanandong and Malitbog Geothermal Power Stations on Leyte. These plants supply most of the generation capacity that supplies the central Philippines grid, the Energy Department said. Bureau Report
posted by philpower @ 10:02 AM,
