©Philippine Daily Inquirer/Ray B. Zambrano
Sheds at the Tondaligan Blue Beach in Dagupan City, destroyed by a storm surge Tuesday night.

Lingayen, Pangasinan, Philippines -- Residents living in coastal areas of Pangasinan were thrown into panic Tuesday night after water from the Lingayen Gulf began to rise and flooded their houses.

According to the provincial disaster coordinating council here, at least 280 families were taken to various evacuation centers here and in the towns of Binmaley, San Fabian, Labrador and Bolinao and Dagupan City.

"The water began to rise at about 6 p.m. (Tuesday) and subsided at about 5 a.m. (Wednesday)," said Paterno Orduña, PDCC executive officer.

The quake's epicenter was 86 kilometers west of this town, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

The magnitude 6 tremor, which struck at 12:27 p.m. Tuesday, was centered 45 kilometers west of Dagupan and 195 kilometers northwest of Manila at a depth of 62.5 kilometers.

But the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration in Dagupan City said that the rise in sea water was a "northeast surge enhanced by typhoon "Lando" (international codename: Hagibis) and not tsunami.