Rains trigger 3 landslides in Cebu

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

CEBU CITY -- It was a muddy Valentine’s Day in the mountain barangays of Pulangbato, Binaliw and Busay.

A long and heavy rain in Cebu City Monday night triggered the landslide which, as of Tuesday noon, has not been cleared.

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Pulangbato barangay captain Maria Velasquez told Sun.Star SuperBalita there was a landslide that hit one house in Sitio Candarong. The family was asked to evacuate.

But the problem is there are about 20 other houses in the area. Another rain could be disastrous.

Cebu City Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office Executive Director Alvin Santillana said he will be sending heavy equipment to the area.

Since Monday night, residents near mountain slopes and river systems in six regions in Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, including Central Visayas, were told to prepare to evacuate.

A low pressure area spotted near Dipolog caused steady rains in these regions. In Cebu, 8.9 millimeters of rain fell in less than 24 hours, according to a report by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Landslides and floods were reported within the last five days in parts of Misamis Occidental, Zamboanga del Sur and Quezon Province.

An abandoned quarry site caused the landslide in Pulangbato, said Velasquez. She did not mention the quarry company or say that it was the same one that received a cease-and-desist order from Cebu City Hall.

There were also minor landslides in Barangays Busay and Binaliw that damaged no properties, but caused a traffic jam.

One lane going down from Busay was closed because of the landslide. In Barangay Binaliw, the landslide was on a road about a kilometer away from the barangay hall.

No casualty was reported in the three separate incidents.

Meanwhile, an old acacia tree fell on electrical wires and damaged a portion of a water refilling station in Barangay Langtad in Naga City Tuesday morning.

No one was hurt in the incident, which occurred past 1 a.m., said tanod (village watchman) Jerry Villarin in a radio dyRC interview.

He said the rain may have caused the tree’s collapse, which also brought brownouts in some parts of Naga City and the neighboring town of San Fernando.

Villarin said the tree blocked the road until 4:30 a.m. Private vehicles, passenger buses and two ambulances were not able to pass through right away.

The tanod said they were not able to clear the road right away because the chainsaw they used was small. They had to borrow a bigger one before they could break the tree into smaller blocks.

A payloader gathered the blocks and placed them by the side of the road, said Villarin. (JGA/KAL/Sun.Star Cebu)