3. - usaid

warehouse in the Manila South Harbor containing about two million pesos
worth of shipments cawt fire due to snapping of electrical wires. The
destruction of the Ruby Towers accounted for all 326 of the lives lost and
233 mured*
The earthquake struck with varying degrees of intensity throughout Iuzon
over a 7 minute time span. In Manila the intensity was registered at VI.
A second, milder earthquake with an intensity of I11 occurred at 4:46 AM.
Two hundred and fifty-four persons were recovered alive flm the rubble of
Ruby Towers by Sunday, August 4. h Monday, August 5, hope had been given
up that any more survivors would be found but on August 7 diggers found
still alive a 10 year old jqirl, Suzie Wong Chan, and her cousin Nancy Wong
Chan, 13. Suziets mother, father, brother and grandfathel? died in the
quake. Her two younger sisters had been rescued on Saturclay, August 3.
Suzie was able to talk when rescuers found her and kept saying "I don't
want to diett. Doctors predicted that Suzie would recover. Her cousin was
in more serious condition.
ACTION TAKEN GOVERNMENT PHILIPPINES AND ORGANIZATIONS
President Ferdinand Marcos was awakened by the phone call of '?Johnny
Midnightu, the only radio conmentator on the air from midnight till early
morning, who informed him of the Ruby Towers tragedy minuties after the
deadly earthquake. The President ordered all relief agencdes of the
government to take steps toward alleviating the plight of the victims. To
facilitate the relief work, he ordered the Budget Comnissl.oner to release
two million pesos ($512,820.51) to aupent the fund at hand for relief work
and to reserve an additional three million pesos ($769,230.77) for any
f'urther need.
Major General Gaudencio V. Tobias, AFP Vice Chief of Staff' at that time,
was designated coordinator for the rescue operations. Three companies of
an AFP engineering brigade conposed of some 250 officers 2nd men undertook
the rescue mission. But even before the arrival of the army, there were
already civilian rescue workers in the area who started to help in whatever
way they could.
A total of about 6,000 rescue workers (soldiers, nurses, nuns, boy and girl
scouts, students and youth volunteers )-Filipinos, Americans, Chinese and
ether nationalities-worked in shifts around-the-clock, ra.clng against time
to save the lives of an estimated 600 tenants of the build-. Cranes,
trucks, forklifts, wreckers, and other excavating equipmenlt were used.
Conations poured in fmm individual donors-cash, shoes, f'lash~lgnts, use?
clothes, blankets, foodstuffs, medicine, face masks, gloves, radio phones,
and other supplies. Cranes and other rescue equipment were loaned from
private sources to a-nt the equipment brought in by the national
eoternnt. Medicdl supplies and drugs were donated by the Philippine
Medical Association, the Dfllg Association of the Philippines and other
private companies.