Knee-deep water after 2-hour downpour; river overflows
Ysterday’s flood scene at the down town area. (Contributed Photo by Edik Doltina)
Heavy rain lasting over two hours yesterday caused urban flooding in Metro Cebu, stranding hundreds of employees and students after the downpour started about 4 p.m.
The downpour also triggered a big traffic jam in major roads as well.
It was the worst episode of flooding this year, said Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak, who heads City Hall’s command and control center (C3).
The Mahiga Creek overflowed, he said. The volume of rain overwhelmed the city’s drainage system.
The Pagasa weather station in Mactan recorded rainfall of 18.2 millimeters in just one hour. A millimeter of rain is equivalent to 5,000 barrels of water poured in a one square kilometer.
“We should expect flooding with this. We can say it was caused by improper drainage,” said Alfredo Quiblat Jr., chief of the weather station.
City Hall dispatched 10 buses to help ferry stranded passengers in the downtown area.
In barangay Pasil, a 16-year-old boy was reported missing after he went to the beach before the rains fell.
Tumulak said the downpour started at 3:53 p.m. and lasted until past 6 p.m.
“Grabe jud to nga nga ulan worsened by the low pressure area,” he said.
Tumulak said there were reported incidents of landslides in sitios Pili, Malubog, St. Martin Heights and Lupa in barangay Sapangdako.
In sitio Calvary in barangay Apas, also in Cebu City, a 53-year-old man and an 8-year-old boy were swept by a strong river current. They were later found safe a few meters away.
MANDAUE TRAFFIC
In Mandaue City, traffic crawled at snail’s pace and at times ground to a halt as roads went underwater.
The city’s command center monitored heavy flooding along A.S. Fortuna St., Plaridel cor. Ouano, M.C. Briones, and barangays Subangdaku and Tipolo.
A journalist who got stuck at at Cebu City’s port area said traffic along the Serging Osmena Road in the North Reclamation Area traffic backed up as far as the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City.
At least two delivery trucks went dead in the water after attempting to cross Kaoshiung St. at the time the Mahiga Creek overflowed past 6 p.m.
Bad weather did not stop Court Administator Midas Marquez from visiting the Mandaue City Jail yesterday.
He was supposed to arrive at 3 p.m. but showed up over three hours late after his flight from Manila got delayed, said jail warden Gil Inopia.
Marquez was with a representative from the International Committee of the Red Cross to check on the situation of the jail facility.
On Wednesday night, three houses were filled with mud while another was damaged after heavy rains early in the evening caused a rip-rap in a subdivision in barangay Lamac in Consolacion town gave way.
Nestor Maglasang, Lamac barangay Lamac, chairman, said the incident happened around 8 p.m.
Mud entered two houses while another house was partially destroyed as most of the houses here are made of light materials, he said.
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