Classes suspended in some parts of Region 8 after Cebu quake
TACLOBAN CITY – Classes have been suspended in several areas in the Eastern Visayas region on Wednesday following the magnitude-6.9 earthquake near Bogo City, Cebu province, that was also felt in Leyte and Samar provinces Tuesday night.
In the island-province of Biliran, Gov. Rogelio Espina declared a suspension of classes for elementary and secondary schools to ensure the safety of learners.
“Our engineers from local government units and the Department of Public Works and Highways will assess first the structural integrity of school facilities,” Espina said in a Facebook post.
Other local government units (LGUs) that declared class suspensions were Calubian, Leyte, and Tabango towns in Leyte province; Catbalogan City and Jiabong in Samar; and Macrohon in Southern Leyte.
LGU officials cited structural integrity assessment as the cause of class suspension.
The administrations of Samar Colleges in Catbalogan City and Southern Leyte State University in Sogod, Southern Leyte, also declared all face-to-face classes cancelled on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, several areas in Eastern Visayas have been experiencing power outages since Tuesday night, as they were affected by multiple line and generator tripping and subsequently affected by the tripping of the Luzon-Visayas link, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
A yellow alert status has been raised over the Visayas grid from 1 p.m. up to 12 midnight on Wednesday, after 27 power plants became unavailable following the earthquake.
A yellow alert is raised when the available power supply has a limited margin compared to the demand.
In an advisory issued Wednesday morning, the NGCP said around 1,444.1 megawatts (MW) were lost after the tripping of the power plants due to the tremor.
It said the available capacity in the Visayas is around 1,888 MW, while peak demand is around 1,839 MW. (PNA)