he house of Celedonio Laping Sr. destroyed by an Easter Sunday flood that killed his wife Arsenia and grandson Vience Ian Durano, one year and ten months old, in Sitio Dualog, Barangay Poblacion, Carmen, Cebu.
CDN PHOTO/Tonee Despojo
ROWENA Sencio, 38, was sleeping with her sons Ivan, 11, and Jade, 13, in her old house in Barangay Ipil, Carmen, Cebu at 4 a.m. on Easter Sunday when suddenly the water from the nearby river overflowed and washed away their house.
No one now will ever know what went through the minds of Rowena and her two children as they were swept away by the raging water.
Their bodies were found lifeless an hour later — the boys about five kilometers from their home while that of their mother near the town’s port area.
Rowena and her kids actually have a new house, but that fateful night, they chose to spend it on their old house.
“Manglimpyo man gud ni sila sa ilang karaang balay,” said Emily Pekitpekit, 40, older sister of Rowena.
(Every now and then, Rowena would visits their old house and clean it.)
She said her sister and nephews decided to spend the night since it started to drizzle at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
“Wa lang sad mi magtuo nga dili sila mamauli kay du-ol ra biya ilang balay (We did not think that they will not go home that night since their new house is just a walking distance away),” she added.
The Sencios’ old house is a 20-minute walk to their new house where Rowena’s husband and eldest son stayed the night the incident happened.
After the heavy downpour from 1 to 3 a.m., a barangay tanod went to inform the relatives that their old house was completely washed away by a flood. It was only then that everyone realized that Rowena and her children had been swept away by floodwater.
The frantic search ended at 6 a.m. when the cold and lifeless bodies of Rowena and her children welcomed their Easter Sunday.
Rowena’s body was recovered by the police near the port. She had wounds in her head and on some parts of her body.
The bodies of Ivan and Jade — bruised and wounded — were retrieved five kilometers away from their house.
In the neighboring barangay of Poblacion, a grandmother, Arcenia Mag-asin Laping, 57, and her one-year-and-ten-month-old grandson, Vience Ian Durano, were found dead floating in the seas off Carmen town.
Six-year-old child Yanina Isabel Hermocilla was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital after being washed by the flood. Her body was found by her older sibling who rushed her to the Danao District Hospital.
In Barangay Puente, Nicholas Pungautan, 76, died after being electrocuted by the live wire of an electric post that was toppled by the flood.
Another fatality, Zobella Gica, 46, from the town’s mountain village of Trium, was also reported as a drowning victim.
According to the Rural Health Unit of Carmen, there were at least 310 families affected by the flash flood who were evacuated and provided with relief goods and clothing.