Saturday, July 05, 2008 Residents flee as earth surface cracked
CLOSE to 300 people staying in a coastal village northeast of Zamboanga City fled to safer grounds due to an abnormal earth surface movement in their area.
City caretaker Alexander Elias said Friday that there are 93 families consisting of 373 people who have abandoned their homes and sought refuge at the village hall and the school.
Muti village chief Malik Akbar said residents have noted around 11 a.m. Thursday that the earth surface has cracked.
This is the first time it happened in their place, they said.
They noted the crack on the earth's surface is about one foot in width and several hundred meters in length, said Malik.
"Yesterday (Thursday) it was one foot wide. The crack has widened to at least one meter in width when we returned this morning (Friday) to inspect the place," he said.
Malik said water is found in the cracks that are several meters deep.
A team from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is inspecting the place for causes as to why the surface cracked.
Muti is 58 kilometers east from City Hall. It has 456 households with a population of 3,046.
Majority of the residents in the village of Muti are into corn, cassava and root crop farming. (Bong P. Garcia)
