Philippines: Earthquake - Oct 2013

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake on 15 October 2013 was the strongest to hit the Philippines' Bohol island province in nearly 25 years, and occurred on a previously unknown fault line. Municipalities in the northwest of Bohol were hardest hit. The total number of affected people has been adjusted to 1.3 million from an initial estimate of 3.2 million as 2 million people from Cebu were first included, but later assessments identified that the island was not affected by the earthquake. According to government assessments and figures from early January, the earthquake damaged in total 79,217 houses out of which 13,402 were destroyed. The Bohol Earthquake Action Plan (BEAP) was issued on 25 Oct, requesting $46.8 million. A revised version was launched in January, reducing the requested amount to $33.8 million in line with the outstanding needs. (OCHA, 6 Feb 2014)

On 24 October 2013, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), at the request of the PRC, launched an emergency appeal on a preliminary basis for CHF 5.4 million to support 10,000 families (50,000 persons) affected by the earthquake. The appeal was revised on 26 December 2013, with the budget increased to CHF 7.7 million, target adjusted to 20,000 households (100,000 people) and timeframe extended from 8 to 16 months. A final revision was made on 31 October 2014, the budget adjusted to CHF 3.58 million and timeframe extended until 31 March 2015. (IFRC, 30 June 2015)