2 kids drowned in Carmen flash flood

HEAVY rainfall and strong winds triggered a flash flood that was believed to have caused two boys to drown at the swollen Malubog River in Carmen town, 41.7 kilometers north of Cebu City, on Sunday morning.

SPO2 Simplicio Gibo, desk officer of the Carmen municipal police, said cousins John Lee Dayon, 3, and Mark Dayon, 5, were playing at the bank of Malubog River in Barangay Ipil of the town while it rained and were caught by its surging water.

Residents of Barangay Ipil, located four kilometers from the town proper, claimed that a “buhawi” or whirlwind hit their area at 9 a.m. causing strong winds and heavy rainfall.

Al Quiblat, chief meteorologist at the state weather bureau’s station on Mactan Island, said the whirlwind might have brought a lot of rain that triggered a flash flood.

Quiblat said a thunderstorm advisory was issued yesterday for northern Cebu particularly in the towns of Medellin, Daanbantayan, Bantayan Island (covering the towns of Sta. Fe, Bantayan and Madridejos) and its nearby towns.

“It’s possible that a thunderstorm occurred in Carmen. A thunderstorm has many features, including a tornado,” Quiblat said in a phone interview

Heavy rainfall was also felt in many parts of Metro Cebu yesterday.

The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) in Mactan said the rains were caused by the southwest monsoon.

Gibo said John Lee’s body was found entangled in the roots of a Banyan tree, locally known as a dakit tree, located a kilometer away from where he was playing.

It took relatives and neighbors almost five hours to locate Mark’s body that was entangled with the roots of a riverbank tree in the vicinity of Sitio Duwal-og, also in Barangay Ipil, at 1:40 p.m.

The two boys were dead when brought to the provincial hospital in Danao City, Gibo said.