3 injured, houses damaged as tornado hits Cotabato town

Cotabato map | INQUIRER.net

KIDAPAWAN CITY—Three people sustained minor injuries and hundreds of houses were partially damaged when a tornado hit the low-lying villages in the town of Mlang on Thursday afternoon, a disaster official said.

Bernardo Tayong, Mlang’s municipal disaster risk reduction and management officer, said an intense thunderstorm pounded the villages of Bialong, Buayan, Tawan-tawan and Poblacion, accompanied with furious lightning and thunder.

Tayong said the heavy downpour lasted for more than an hour and then followed by a howling wind that damaged houses and uprooted acacia and mango trees.

“The wind is so powerful that it even peeled off the roof of some warehouses and buildings particularly in Barangay Bialong,” Tayong told the Inquirer by phone.

The disaster official said that a similar incident also took place on Friday that resulted in the damage of homes in Barangay Buayan.

Tayong said the tornado was first sighted in Barangay Tawan-tawan and moved towards adjacent villages.

Tayong said he was surprised upon learning that at about the same time, some areas in the town experienced extraordinarily high temperature, just like the nearby towns of Tulunan, Makilala and Matalam where humidity was at 35 degrees.

Mayor Russel Abonado has deployed personnel of the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office for the distribution of relief supplies to the affected families.

“We will also give them assistance to build their damaged homes,” Abonado said.

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JPV