Tornado hits Carigara town

CARIGARA, Leytea -- A tornado hit this town Saturday night, destroyed a portion of the market complex and wounded a fish vendor. The local government estimated the damage to more than P1.6 million.

Witnesses said the tornado occurred past 7 p.m. It destroyed the roof of the public market’s wet section located in Barangay Baybay.

Mary Jean Arpon, 30, a resident of Barangay Manlos, sustained a minor wound at her back when a roof, made of a GI sheet, hit her while she ran for safety.

“It lasted for some minutes, even five (minutes), but so fierce that caused the roof of the structure to literally fly to various directions as bulbs and fluorescents exploding like firecrackers,” fish vendor Edwin Donsal, 36, said Sunday afternoon.

Donsal added that the tornado occurred after a lightning that was followed by heavy rains.

The market area, built in 2010, faces the Carigara Bay.

Town market supervisor Nardo Sonon said that two-thirds of the wet market section’s roofs were destroyed.

Sandra Avestruz of the local weather station based in Tacloban said, however, that they did not receive any occurrence of a tornado hitting Carigara.

“So I cannot comment whether it was really a tornado or just a strong wind,” Avestruz said in a phone interview.

The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration of the United States defines a tornado as violently rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the grounds.

Carigara Mayor Trinidad Apostol said that based on their assessment, the tornado damaged around P1.6 million properties and displaced 85 fish vendors.

Apostol said the local disaster risk reduction management council convened Sunday night and passed a resolution urging the town council to pass a resolution declaring a state of emergency.

This way, she said, the Municipal Government could use a part of its P5-million calamity fund to rehabilitate the public market.

“This is a calamity nobody wants to happen. That is why, we have to take fast action and repair the public market immediately so our fish vendors could return there,” Apostol said.

During an emergency meeting she called last Sunday at her office, Apostol said the destroyed building must be given priority considering that several fish vendors are doing their business there. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)