CEBU, Philippines - An unusually heavy rain in Metro Cebu yesterday became a welcome respite for many residents who have endured days of high temperatures following the onset of the dry season.
It’s just that the rain came with an expected antagonist: floods.
The two-hour downpour, left hundreds stranded in inundated streets and caused traffic gridlocks in some major roads.
Minutes after the rain began, floodwaters in downtown Cebu City started to rise. The same was observed in some areas in Talisay City and Minglanilla town in southern Cebu.
In downtown Cebu City, knee-deep flood on V. Gullas and Jakosalem Streets left several commuters stranded.
But for some low-income earners, flood during this supposedly hot month of April was a blessing.
Some enterprising Cebuanos took advantage of the flood by ferrying stranded passengers in downtown area in exchange for some little amount of money.
Vhan Singson, weather specialist 1 at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa)-Mactan, said yesterday’s downpour was not necessarily related to tropical depression “Dante.”
He said it was due to the so-called “local convective cloud.”
Convection clouds are formed when warmer air or liquid — which has faster moving molecules, making it less dense — rises, while the cooler air or liquid drops down.
As of 3 p.m. yesterday, Singson said, Dante was spotted 1,395 kilometers of Infanta, Quezon and is moving northeast at 15 kilometers per hour.
Dante has sustained winds of 65 kph and gusts of up to 80 kph.
Singson said Dante has been interrupted by an external weather system, causing it to veer away from the country. It is expected to exit the Philippine Area Responsibility (PAR) today, April 28.
But while Dante will no longer make landfall in the Philippines, the local government units in northern Cebu that were badly affected by tropical depression “Crising” have been instituting preventive measures in anticipation of severe weather disturbances.
Crising’s wrath left at least 10 people dead and hundreds displaced in Cebu, mostly in the northern towns on the eastern strip of the island.
Heavy rains, which lasted more than three hours, inundated several villages.
The flooding led to the death of eight persons whose houses were washed out by floods in Carmen town and another one from Danao City.
A fisherman from Alcoy town also drowned after his boat sank at the height of Crising, which weakened into an LPA on April 15 after making landfall in Samar Island.
Thomas Lawas, Danao City disaster officer, said all the barangays disaster networks have already been activated.
He said the barangay disaster committees have been regularly meeting to discuss mitigating measures to prevent last week’s tragic incident from happening again.
"If naa’y signal warning. Patuo lang gyud especially katong mga duol sa riverside and coastal areas," he said. — Jahara Mae E. Monares and Maria Carmela Pasaol (FREEMAN)