Lightning kills boy in Cebu City; 3 Argao students swept away in river
A 16-year old boy playing in the rain in Cebu City was killed by a lightning bolt during yesterday afternoon’s thunderstorm.
The crash of thunder, rain and rushing wind left people worried again about flooding and landslides.
In the southern town of Argao, three high school students were swept away by rushing water in a spillway as they walked home from school past 4 p.m.
The children remain missing.
The sudden rush of water from the river “was like tidal waves”, said the Argao police quoting four other students who survived.
It was raining hard in the mountains of nearby Dalaguete town.
Weathermen said no typhoon or low pressure area is in the area but the southwest monsoon is expected to bring heavy rains and thunderstorms in Cebu.
A downpour was recorded from 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.by the Mactan weather staff of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa.)
The rainfall was recorded at 4.4 millimeters, not enough to trigger a street flood in the cities, which occurs when there is at least 15 millimeters of rain, said Mayma Casilagan, weather specialist.
BURNS
William Gabihan was playing in the rain outside his house when he suddenly collapsed in lower Sambag 2, barangay Guadalupe in Cebu City, according to neighbors.
Barangay disaster volunteers found the boy lying on the ground with burn marks on his back, said Alex Navaja, a barangay public safety officer, who received the distress phone call of a neighbor.
They brought the boy to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, but he didn’t make it alive.
The boy’s parents were at work when the freak accident occurred.
He was a third year night high school student of the Ramon Duterte High School.
When the lightning struck in the neighborhood last night, a goat was killed in 2008, said Christie Minoza, a barangay volunteer.
RIVER CROSSING
Classes were dismissed early in the Calagasan National High School in Argao town as teachers sensed a downpour coming. Seven students walking home crossed the 75-meter spillway of a river in barangay Linutan.
Midway, three of them were caught by surprise by a flash flood said Inspector Alejandro Batobalonos of the Argao police sation.
The river six meters below was normal when they started to cross.
Four students reached the other end of the concrete spillway, when a strong current swept away three companions still in the middle.
“It was like tidal waves. The other children who went ahead could no longer see the students who were still in the middle of the spillway,” Batobalonos said. A skirt and school bag of one of the girls was recovered about 100 meters from the accident site.
The victims were identified as Caroline Marzon, 15, grade 9; her classmate Ritchel Ann Pasaje, 15, and Earl Kyle Sardido, 13, grade 7.
A search and rescue operation was overtaken by nightfall and the rising level of the river.
The mayor has ordered a search to begin early today with a team from the municipality. The river runs through at least 12 barangays from Linut-od to the sea in Langtad and Poblacion, Argao town.
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