CEBU, Philippines - Heavy rainfall wreaked havoc across Cebu province yesterday, killing at least nine people, including four children, and forcing hundreds to flee.
The fatalities mostly come from the northern town of Carmen whose river overflowed from nonstop rains since late evening on Black Saturday night, April 15. The rain poured for at least three hours.
Carmen police identified the victims as Rowena Sencio, 38, and her children Jade, 13, and Ivan, 11; and Arsenia Laping, 58, and her grandson Vience Ian Durano, 2; Yanina Isabel Hermocilla, 6; Niculas Pongaotan, 76.
Pongaotan died after he got electrocuted when an electric post fell on him while he was reportedly trying to salvage some poultry animals in Sitio Sun-oc in Barangay Fuente in the same town. His sister, Gorgonia Pongaoton, 70, was also electrocuted but is now recuperating in the hospital.
Julius Regner, spokesperson of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO), said the Sencios, Laping, and Durano drowned after floodwaters washed their homes away in Carmen town.
Regner said the bodies of the Sencios were found floating in the coastal barangay of Dawis Sur, Carmen, roughly two kilometers from their house in Sitio Duwalog, also in Barangay Ipil in the same town.
Manolat drowned after rampaging floodwaters swept her house away while she was inside sleeping at the height of a low pressure area that used to be Tropical Depression “Crising.”
Fortunately, other members of her household were able to flee to safety.
A dead body of an unidentified person was also found in Sitio Cambania Triampo in Carmen.
Regner said at least 73 homes in Barangays Poblacion, Fuente, Dawis, Luyang, and Duwalog in Carmen were washed away by strong floodwaters.
Floodwaters in portions of Carmen rose to over six feet in just a few hours of rain and left piles of wreckage after the swelling of the town's river between 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. yesterday.
“Kusog kaayo ang bul-og sa baha,” Regner said.
Residents of Carmen claimed that a “buhawi” or whirlwind hit their area at dawn causing strong winds and heavy rainfall, but Regner said they are still looking into the veracity of the reports.
“Duna lagi kuno’y buhawi pero kaning mga reports dili pa verified,” he said.
The floods in barangays Ipil and Poblacion in Carmen have subsided since yesterday morning but water is still knee-deep in Cagatlamac in Danao City.
Another death was reported in the neighboring Danao City, located some 32 kilometers north of Cebu City. Virginia Manolat, 70, of Cagatlamac, was the lone fatality there.
Evacuation
Around hundreds families have fled to safer ground due to massive flooding in several areas in southern and northern Cebu, spawned by an LPA.
In the north, continuous rainfall in Mandaue City flooded some of the barangays, forcing hundreds of residents to leave their homes and seek shelter in nearby evacuation centers.
The affected areas are the eight barangays of Cabancalan, Tipolo, Banilad, Paknaan, Mantuyong, Labogon, Tingub and Basak, according to Felix Suico, head of the Mandaue City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO).
Suico said 165 of the 300 individuals evacuated returned to their homes yesterday after floodwaters subsided.
"Ato naman hinuon silang gipabalik paghupa na sa baha pero ang 135 ka mga indibidwal gikan sa Barangay Cabancalan wala pa nato pabalika kay wa pa mihupa ang tubig-baha," he said.
But there were no reports of injuries or casualties in Mandaue City.
Suico, however, said a concrete wall in Barangay Basak collapsed and a backhoe, which was used for dredging in Barangay Guizo-Mantuyog river, was swept away by the raging floodwaters.
In Cebu City, at least 19 barangays were also flooded, including the urban barangays of Kasambagan and Mabolo.
Nagiel Bañacia, City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office head, said these barangays have already been identified as flood-prone areas.
Reports reaching the CDRRM office said that knee-deep floodwaters inundated these barangays starting 10 in the evening Saturday. Floodwaters subsided at around eight yesterday morning.
But no residents, even those living along coastal areas, rivers and tributary streams, were evacuated.
A river in northern Bogo City also swelled Saturday night. No casualties were reported in these areas.
Landslides
The CCDRRMO recorded at least two minor landslides in the mountain areas in Sitio Tak-an in Barangay Budlaan and in Sitio Salingsing in Barangay Busay in Cebu City.
The provincial disaster management office also reported minor landslides in Talisay City, south of Cebu City, as well as in Sogod town in northern Cebu.
The landslide-affected areas are still passable.
Bañacia also said no major incidents due to bad weather were recorded, but they are continuing to monitor flood and landslide-prone areas in the city.
In Talisay City, a portion of the national road in Barangay Manipis was covered with boulders and loosened soil due to heavy rains.
The road was rendered impassable to four-wheeled vehicle and motorcycles after a landslide hit the area yesterday 2 a.m., covering a wide portion of the road with boulders and loosened soil, according to Barangay Captain Emma Cabiluna.
Six hours after, the road was declared passable after the contractor of the ongoing road repairs in Barangay Manipis removed the barriers.
Cebu City and most parts of the province are still experiencing light to moderate rain showers.
Engineer Romeo Aguirre, weather specialist of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration-Cebu, said the heavy rains from 1:54 a.m. to 5:06 a.m. registered 68.2 millimeters of accumulated volume of rainfall.
This is equivalent to 350,000 drums of water per square kilometer, more than enough to flood urban areas having poor drainage systems. He said the nonstop rains were brought by the LPA spotted near the Panay and Negos Island at dawn yesterday.
This weather disturbance is the third to enter and cross the country, reaching the intensity of a tropical depression. It made landfall in Samar Island on Saturday evening but weakened back to a LPA barely two hours later.
The LPA is expected to exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility - the imaginary boundary outside the country -by Tuesday if it would not dissipate. — with Odessa O. Leyson ,Dale G. Israel, Iris Mariani B. Algabre, Garry B. Lao and May B. Miasco/JMO (FREEMAN)