Video Related To: Residents of Northern Samar evacuated

The Philippines' main disaster office on Friday said it had yet to receive reports of casualties from a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck several provinces facing the Pacific Ocean, though a government official said there was damage to infrastructure and power outages. A tsunami alert originally was issued for several countries in the region including Indonesia and Japan and for Pacific islands as far away as the Northern Marianas, but they all were later lifted. Undersecretary Benito Ramos, head of the Philippines' National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told a local radio station that all disaster and relief offices had been alerted and were ready to cope with the effects of the earthquake. Mr. Ramos said the government had advised those living in coastal areas in the provinces of Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur to immediately evacuate to higher ground because of a possible tsunami. "Definitely, we have a lot of damages to infrastructure," said Paul Daza, the governor of Northern Samar. "We are now without electricity. We have ordered the immediate evacuation of coastal areas." Congressman Ben Evardone, a lawmaker from Eastern Samar, said all but two of the 23 towns in his province face the Pacific Ocean. He said residents have fled to higher ground and are awaiting word if it is safe to return to their homes. He said there has been reported damage to roads and other infrastructure, but <b>...</b>