The Philippines is no stranger to earthquakes\u2014it sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire. But a temblor which struck on Tuesday, Sept. 30, became the deadliest the country has ever experienced since at least 2013.<\/p>\n
A 6.9-magnitude quake hit just before 10 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET), Philippine seismologists reported<\/a>, off the shore of coastal Bogo City (pop. 90,000) in the island province of Cebu in the archipelagic Southeast Asian country\u2019s center.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The quake\u2019s epicenter was shallow, only some 5 km below the surface, which means its energy needed to travel less distance before hitting infrastructure<\/a>. The seismic energy was strong enough to cause buildings to collapse<\/a>\u2014including a century-old church<\/a>\u2014and to leave cracks on bridges<\/a>. In one affected town, the quake led to part of a sports complex<\/a> collapsing on spectators of a basketball game. In Bogo City,\u00a0 a village reported some 10 casualties<\/a>, despite being made up of \u201cdisaster resilient homes\u201d that housed survivors of a devastating supertyphoon back in 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n A tsunami alert was issued for several Philippine regions, though that has since been lifted as of Thursday.<\/p>\n National disaster officials reported at least 72 people died and 294 were injured after the quake, though the official toll could increase in the coming days.<\/p>\n Civil defense official Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV told<\/a> a news conference from Manila on Wednesday that the country was \u201cstill in the golden hour of our search and rescue,\u201d adding that there \u201care still many reports of people who were pinned or hit by debris.\u201d By Thursday afternoon, the national police said<\/a> all missing individuals had been accounted for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alejandro added that the quake was particularly deadly because it happened at night. \u201cIn the morning, we are all alert, but at night when everyone is asleep, it takes time for us to react.\u201d<\/p>\n A state of calamity was issued over the province on Wednesday<\/a>, and on Thursday, President Ferdinand \u201cBongbong\u201d Marcos Jr. visited hard-hit areas<\/a> to assess the extent of the damage.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what to know.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s quake is the deadliest the country has experienced since October 2013<\/a>, when more than 200 people died in the Philippines\u2019 central region after a 7.2-magnitude quake struck the neighboring island of Bohol.<\/p>\n Besides being a hotbed of seismic activity, the Philippines is also among the most climate-vulnerable countries globally, seeing more than 20 typhoons and tropical storm systems yearly.<\/p>\n The Cebu quake also happened after a tropical storm late last week battered Cebu and other provinces in the country\u2019s central region. That storm separately left at least 27 people dead<\/a>\u2014many knocked down by felled trees or drowned\u2014and cut power to cities and towns and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes. It also increased the risk of landslides after heavy rains soaked hillsides and softened soil.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\nBattered by natural disasters<\/h2>\n