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Sunday, September 16, 2007
Flood sweeps away 2-year-old boy
CEBU CITY -- A two-year-old boy who was playing in the rain Saturday afternoon went missing, swept away by rushing flood waters into an open manhole on Clavano Street, Barangay Capitol Site, Cebu City.
Mildred Ceballos asked her sister-in-law to look after Brandon Lee because she had to prepare food for dinner past 3 p.m. Brandon, however, reportedly went out and ran after some children who were playing in the rain.
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Chief Inspector Arnel Banzon of the Mobile Patrol Group immediately sent a team of policemen to help in the rescue operations. Members of the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (Eruf) were also at the site to help.
City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, action officer of the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council, said that the steel cover of the drainage manhole was stolen.
He also said in a radio dySS interview Saturday night that another child was missing in Barangay Sapangdaku.
The child was last seen crossing the river. As of 11:30 Saturday night, the mobile patrol said a child’s body was found in Barangay Ermita.
Meanwhile, Brandon’s relatives told reporters that Brandon fell into the open canal and got stuck in the culvert. They tried to rescue him but failed as he was already carried away in the strong current.
Distraught, Mildred just kept on weeping. She could not say more about what happened.
Brandon is younger of the Ceballos couple’s two children. He has a four-year-old brother.
Barangay officials and members of the police stations 1 and 3 were already ordered to monitor rivers as possible exit points of the drainage on Clavano Street.
Because of the southwest monsoon (“habagat”), recent days in Cebu and other parts of the Visayas have been marked by heavy rains.
Ella Cojajig, weather forecaster of Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pag-asa) Mactan, said there is also a developing low-pressure area 1,000 kilometers extreme east of northern Luzon.
She said the southwest monsoon will continue to bring rain in Central Visayas.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña earlier said he will form a task force that will deal with flooding in the city, including the construction of as many as 20 mini-dikes in 27 barangays.
City Hall also has about P30 million in calamity funds that can be used to repair infrastructure damaged by flooding last Wednesday.
Baksan Elementary School in Barangay Sapangdaku has to be relocated as it sits near the riverbank and was inundated. Books and school equipment were lost or got destroyed when floodwaters tore through the school.
Some 500 families whose houses along the riverbanks were damaged also have to rebuild. (JST/With GAC/Sun.Star Cebu)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (September 16, 2007 issue)
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