Photo by Eva Malazarte
Farmers in Barangay Taptap, Cebu City have expressed worry on the loss of their crops that were damaged by the rains brought about by Tropical Depression Samuel.
Barangay Councilor Griffins Malazarte, whose family plants corn, said that they will have to start planting again to make sure that they will have something to harvest in time for their fiesta celebration in February 2019.
Photo by Eva Malazarte
“Back to zero. That is how I would describe it. But to be honest, we are quite used to this… when our crops are destroyed. We will just have to plant again,” he said.
However, he said, Taptap residents are still glad that no one was hurt when TD Samuel affected their barangay and parts of Cebu province early on Wednesday morning.
Engineer Al Quiblat, Pagasa Mactan chief, said that TD Samuel made a landfall in Daanbantayan town located in the province’s northern tip at around 7 a.m. today before it moved to Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.
TD Samuel had a maximum sustained winds of 45 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of 70 kilometers per hour when it passed by Cebu Malazarte said that they experienced continuous raining in their barangay Tuesday night while the weather was cold and windy.
Nagiel Bañacia, head of the city’s Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, said that raining in the mountain barangays lasted until around 3:18 a.m. on Wednesday.
Bañacia, who spent the night at the Taptap ambulance base, said that no major damages were reported in the mountain barangays of Busay, Malubog, Babag, Bonbon, Pungol Sibugay and Taptap.