Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990 TAG: 9007190620
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/8 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BAGUIO, PHILIPPINES LENGTH: Medium
Monday's quake, which registered 7.7 on the Richter scale, toppled buildings and triggered landslides across a wide area north of the capital.
Rescuers said there could be 250 more dead in the ruins of a school in Cabanatuan City, two flattened hotels in Baguio and in this city's factory district, where search operations have not begun.
That does not include others who may be in cars, buses and trucks reported buried in landslides or hurled into ravines elsewhere on Luzon in the temblor.
As many as 30,000 people fled on foot from this mountain resort north of Manila, heading for the lowlands along a highway blocked by landslides, an official said.
Figures compiled by the Office of Civil Defense and the Red Cross showed at least 490 people were killed and 1,000 injured in the quake. Officials said two Americans were among the dead and five were missing.
Manila television stations reported that hundreds of thousands of people in central Luzon lacked electricity, drinking water and food.
President Corazon Aquino ordered price controls on rice, pork and other commodities in short supply throughout the affected area. But survivors complained of price-gouging and food shortages.
Especially hard-hit was Baguio, 110 miles north of Manila, where 1,500 Americans live. Officials said scores of people were believed trapped in eight hotels that were severely damaged.
In Cabanatuan, 60 miles north of Manila, British technicians using sensor devices found no signs of life today in the rubble of the six-story Philippine Christian College.
Hundreds of students and teachers were trapped when the building collapsed. Rescuers found 137 survivors and 60 dead in Cabanatuan. British rescuers said sensors indicated about 25 bodies remained buried there.
by CNB