Number of confirmed Pinoy fatalities in NZ quake now 4

Published March 14, 2011 4:05pm

The number of Filipino fatalities in the quake that hit New Zealand late last month rose to four Monday as police identified another Filipina among the dead. In a news release, the New Zealand police identified the latest Filipina fatality as Lalaine Collado Agatep, 38. Agatep was one of the six people who were added on the list of fatalities in the magnitude-6.3 quake that hit the Christchurch area. The others were:

Carey Stuart Bird, 48, a New Zealand citizen resident in Australia;

Miki Hayasaka, 37, of Japan;

Yuko Hirabayashi, 28, of Japan;

Hifumi Hoshiba, 41, of Japan; and

Kyle Brandon Jack-Midgley, 27, of Christchurch "This brings the total number of names released to 123," the police said. Still missing are at least seven more Filipinos, namely:

Jessie Lloyd Redoble

John Kristoffer Chua

Ezra Mae Medalle

Emmabel Anoba

Mary Louise Anne Amantillo

Valquin Bensurto

Rhea Mae Sumalpong Christchurch, New Zealandâ€™s second biggest city, was rocked by a magnitude-6.3 quake last February 22. It was the second quake to hit the city of almost 400,00 people in five months, and New Zealandâ€™s most deadly natural disaster for 80 years. New Zealand sits between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates and records on average more than 14,000 earthquakes a year, of which about 20 would normally top magnitude 5.0. â€“ KBK, GMA News

Tags: nzquake, newzealandquake, ofwsinnewzealand, pinoysinnewzealand