Strong winds down posts, trees, damage houses in GenSan City

NO ROOF. Emmy Limbo, 57, holds her grandchild as she gestures towards her family’s eatery that was rendered roofless after being battered by strong winds Thursday, June 4. Photo by Rommel G Rebollido

GENERAL SANTOS CITY –– At first, Emmy Limbo thought there was an earthquake when she was awakened last Thursday, June 4, by a loud crashing sound from the side of the house where there were several trees.

Limbo said she attempted to rush out of the house but was met by strong winds and saw the roofing sheets of their carenderia (eatery) tossed into the air by strong winds.

It happened so fast, she said while gesturing how the strong winds seemed to crumple the roof of their small eatery business.

“I have to go back inside. Then I realized my husband was at the carenderia, so I again went back,” the 57-year-old grandmother narrated in the dialect.

The strong winds struck Barangay Bula here Thursday, toppling electric poles and trees, destroying houses and vehicles.

TOPPLED. Linemen from the local electric cooperative work on a concrete electric pole broken in half by strong winds Thursday, June 4. Photo by Rommel G Rebollido

Driver Isagani Pigar said huge trees fell and were strewn along main roads.

He added that he saw one pickup truck crashed by a tree.

City Mayor Ronnel Rivera said they were still assessing the damage caused by the freak weather phenomenon. So far, no one was reported hurt in the incident.

Limbo said none of their four family members, among them an infant, were hurt. She lamented, though, that they again lost a source of livelihood.

“We just reopened the carenderia for about a week now and this happened,” she said.

LZB