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Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Schools across RP interrupt classes for earthquake drill (11:50 a.m.)
MANILA -- Sirens wailed and school bells rang Tuesday as about 1 million students across the Philippines took part in drills to prepare the country for a major earthquake.
Authorities said the exercise covered 42,000 elementary and high schools, focusing on children because they are considered most vulnerable to earthquakes.
"The odds are, in the next several years, we have to prepare for a large one," Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz said Monday, noting that the entire country except for one province was covered by
earthquake fault lines.
"We've had the successive earthquakes in Japan and Indonesia. We don't have a scientific method of predicting when it will happen but there is common sense," he told reporters.
The Philippines is in the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. The last major quake registered a magnitude 7.7 in 1990 and killed nearly 2,000 people on the main northern island of Luzon.
The drill was meant to help teachers and students practice appropriate action in case of a quake, such as taking cover under a desk or a door jamb before evacuating the building in an organized manner.
Engineers also will be checking the integrity of school buildings, officials said.(AP) |
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