The body of 16-year- old high school student Ronnel Abellaneda was found near the mouth of the Guadalupe River early morning Friday.
He was found by fishermen in the area after the boy was last seen by classmates of Gothong Nationa High School swimming near the ramp of sito Mahayahay in Pasil during Thursday’s heavy downpour.
Rescue teams searched for the boy until past 12 midnight but stopped due to “zero visibility” in the area caused by the heavy rain.
Abellaneda was identified by his brother, said Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak who heads the Cebu City’s Command Control Center (C3).
Low pressure
He said the victim’s family can receive P10,000 burial assistance from the city.
Tumulak said last Thursday’s urban flooding was the worst so far for Cebu City this year.
“What made it worse was the low pressure area in the weather,” he said.
The rain started at 4 p.m. and fell for more than two hours. The street floods subsided in the evening.
Several creeks and rivers overflowed.
“We really have to prepare our engineering, responders and barangays when there’s a similar heavy rain and flood. This is the so-called new normal of floods in Cebu City,” Tumulak said.
Landslides were reported in the city’s mountain barangays in sitios St. Michael and Lupa of barangay Sapangdaku.
Response teams were able to clear the roads of debris immediately.
Tumulak said no one was injured.