Following a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that claimed dozens of lives and injured hundreds more, hundreds of aftershocks rocked the southern Philippines.
As emergency personnel arrive in coastal villages and cities, the extent of the destruction on Mindanao island is becoming evident. Officials worry that the current death toll, which is 37 killed and 487 injured, may increase.
Roads are either damaged or buried in landslides, and buildings have fallen. There are still large areas of the island without phone service or electricity.
Tens of thousands of people were displaced as a result of the Monday morning earthquake, which also caused tsunami warnings in Indonesia, south of Mindanao, and along Japan's Pacific coast.

"We anticipate a shift in the death toll, but we hope it does not get any higher. Search and rescue is our top priority right now," Bernardo Alejandro, assistant secretary of the organization in charge of disaster response, said on DZMM radio.
According to their assessment, about 2,000 residences and 6,000 public schools have been harmed thus far, he continued.
Due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, which has higher seismic activity, the Philippines frequently experiences earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
A movement on the Cotabato Trench, off the southern edge of the nation, was the source of Monday's earthquake.The trench, a source of massive earthquakes, caused a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in 1976 that resulted in a tsunami that killed over 5,000 people.In normally tranquil areas of Mindnao, the earthquake on Monday caused terror. CCTV cameras and mobile phones recorded scenes of children screaming as the ground trembled with houses collapsing to the ground.Everyone experienced vertigo, as if we had been violently rocked on a hammock for longer than two minutes. According to Cesar Sundo, a public school teacher in Lebak town, "and the shaking was getting stronger by the second.""We had to soothe our students because they were yelling and sobbing. And thousands of pupils were involved.
The youngsters, who were primarily less than ten, remained on school property until they were told to leave, according to Sundo.He explained that they were outside when the earthquake occurred and that "our flag ceremony literally saved us."Renato Solidum, a science minister and seasoned seismologist, stated that many kids were able to live because they attended the Monday morning assembly.They were fortunate to be outside. In a another interview, Solidum told DZMM, "They were able to stay put and sit down."Strong earthquakes have already occurred in these regions. This is among the most powerful.
In one widely shared video, spectators watched in terror as a Jollibee location in General Santos City collapsed.All of the chain's employees in earthquake-affected locations are safe, according to a statement released on Monday night.
In response to the disaster, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared that he had activated the whole government apparatus.
To supervise the reaction, his health and transport secretaries have taken a plane from Manila to Mindanao. Even as medical personnel attended to the injured, Teodoro Herbosa, the health secretary, said that aftershocks, some of which were extremely powerful, struck.Some places, like Jose Abad Santos in Davao Occidental on the east side of Mindanao, are still hard to get to.

The single roadway in his town has been covered by landslides, leaving half of it reachable by road, Mayor Jason John Joyce told DZMM.In remote barangays (villages), relief supplies must be flown in," he continued.