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Christine Boton - The Philippine Star
July 31, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) issued and later canceled a tsunami advisory yesterday following a powerful magnitude 8.7 earthquake that struck off the east coast of Kamchatka, Russia.
According to the agency, the temblor occurred at 7:25 a.m. (Philippine time) at a depth of 74 kilometers and was expected to generate tsunami waves of less than one meter in coastal areas of the Philippines facing the Pacific Ocean.
The first waves were expected to hit between 1:20 p.m. and 2:40 p.m. yesterday. However, Phivolcs noted that these may not be the largest and wave activity could persist for hours.
As a precaution, the agency advised residents in coastal areas facing the Pacific Ocean to stay away from beaches and shorelines, and to move farther inland if living near the coast.
Boat owners were also urged to secure their vessels and avoid going out to sea during the period of wave activity.
Provinces initially advised to take precautions include areas in Northern and Eastern Luzon, the Bicol Region, the Visayas and Mindanao. These include Batanes, Dinagat Islands, Isabela, Aurora, Quezon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay and Sorsogon in Luzon; Northern Samar, Eastern Samar and Leyte in the Visayas; and Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao de Oro, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental in Mindanao.
However, by 4:40 p.m., PHIVOLCS announced the cancellation of the tsunami advisory after monitoring stations facing the Philippine Sea detected no significant sea-level disturbances or destructive tsunami waves.
“Any effects due to minor sea level disturbances have largely passed,” the agency said in its final bulletin. “Therefore, DOST-PHIVOLCS has now canceled the recommendations issued for this event.”
PHIVOLCS confirmed that this will be the final tsunami advisory related to the July 30 earthquake.
Evacuation
In response to the earlier tsunami warning by PHIVOLCS, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued an advisory calling for preemptive evacuation in the eastern provinces covered by seven regions.
“Based on the revised magnitude calculations and tsunami wave models in the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, coastal areas in the Philippines fronting the Pacific Ocean are expected to experience tsunami wave height of less than one meter,” the DILG advisory said.
In view of the alert, the DILG said that all concerned local government officials were urged to be on alert for unusual waves and urge people in their coastal communities to stay away from the beach and refrain from going to that coast.
The 22 provinces covered by the advisory were identified as Batanes, Cagayan, Catanduanes, Isabela, Northern Samar, Aurora, Eastern Samar, Quezon, Leyte, Davao del Sur, Camarines Norte, Southern Leyte, Davao de Oro, Camarines Sur, Dinagat Islands, Albay, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Davao Occidental and Sorsogon.
In its advisory, the DILG also urged the concerned local government units (LGUs) to establish evacuation routes, directional signs, and safe zones for at-risk communities; activate their respective Emergency Operations Centers and Incident Management Teams; strictly implement actions based on Operation Listo and Listong Pamayanan Tsunami Toolkit and coordinate closely with regional and provincial disaster risk reduction and management councils, PHIVOLCS and other relevant agencies.
The Presidential Communications Office also urged the public to monitor official advisories from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and LGUs.– Rainier Allan
Ronda, Evelyn Macairan, Roel Pareño, Helen Flores
