HOUSE COLLAPSED/NOV. 21, 2018: Resident who rescued Cecelia Abendan 64 after her house collapsed at sitio Tapuko, Barangay Pit-os, Cebu City.(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
TROPICAL Depression Samuel has spared most of Cebu despite making a landfall within the vicinity of Daanbantayan town at the northern tip of the province past 6 a.m. yesterday.
In turn, all local government units (LGUs) in Cebu City and province have started to normalize operations since the state weather bureau lifted Storm Signal No. 1 in Cebu at noon yesterday.
No casualty, incidents, and major damages were reported.
Classes from pre-school to senior high school in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu and the other cities and towns in Cebu province that were suspended since Tuesday would resume today.
The Philippine Coast Guard in Central Visayas (PCG-7) also gave the go-signal for the resumption of sea voyages yesterday morning, except for those bound to Western Visayas, as Storm Signal No. 1 was still up in the provinces in the region as of 5 p.m. yesterday.
The Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) was back to its normal operations as of late Tuesday, said Avigael Maningo, head of Corporate Affairs and Branding Department of GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC), which operates the airport.
TD Samuel was last spotted by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) 70 km west southwest of Iloilo City, or 120 km east southeast of Cuyo, Palawan, as of 4 p.m. yesterday.
Al Quiblat, Pagasa-Mactan bureau chief, said Cebu will experience a major improvement in its weather condition
starting today, Nov. 22.
“We will experience a generally fair weather with sunny skies and isolated rains due to the localized thunderstorms,” Quiblat said.
There was also no heavy downpour as earlier projected.
Quiblat said that based on their earlier forecast, Samuel was to bring moderate to heavy rains, or about 80 to 100 millimeters (mm) of rainfall, the moment it made landfalls in northern Cebu. “But instead the province experienced only light rain and
collected about 20 mm of rain,” he added.
As it heads out of the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR), Samuel has maintained its speed at 40 kilometers per hour (kph) and strength at 70 kph. It was expected to exit PAR by tomorrow morning, Nov. 23.
Evacuation
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) reported six LGUs in northern Cebu
conducted preemptive evacuation on Tuesday for residents living in disaster-prone areas.
A total of 485 families or 2,258 individuals were evacuated from Bogo City and Danao City, and the towns Carmen, Daanbantayan, Sogod and Tabogon since Tuesday.
But as Wednesday noon, the figures dwindled to 436 families or approximately 2,100 individuals still staying in evacuation centers.
PDRRMO spokesperson Julius Regner said they were thankful that Samuel did not make any significant impact in Cebu.
Cebu City officials likewise heaved a sigh of relief that no untoward incident was recorded in Cebu as a result of the passage of TD Samuel.
The Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CCDRRMO) said that the 71 families or 150 individuals from Barangay Buhisan who were preemptively evacuated to the village’s sports complex on Tuesday evening have returned to their houses.
Saved by the tree
On the other hand, CCDRRMO personnel rescued an elderly woman from Sitio Tapuko, Barangay Pit-os after her house, which stood on the edge of a cliff, collapsed yesterday morning.
Celia Abendan, 83, clung to the branches of a mansanitas tree on the side of the cliff, which stopped her from falling down approximately 15 meters below onto the road of Urbanville Subdivision in Barangay Pit-os.
CCDRRMO chief Nagiel Bañacia said the house collapsed due to the poor foundation and not because of TD Samuel,
although it rained when it happened.
Abendan, who was unharmed, said she was about to enter the shanty at past 9 a.m. yesterday after cooking breakfast in the dirty kitchen outside when the structure’s wooden posts broke.
She is now taking shelter at the chapel in Sitio Tapuko.
“If there was no mansanitas tree, I would have fallen below,”
Abendan said in Cebuano. /WITH CORRESPONDENT BENJIE B. TALISIC