Whirlwind destroys 13 houses in 2 Cagayan towns
BLOWNAWAY Roofing materials get entangled with power lines in the town of Pamplona in Cagayan province after they were blown away by a whirlwind that struck past 9 a.m. on Sunday, destroying at least 12 houses. —PAMPLONA MUNICIPAL DISASTER RISK REDUCTION MANAGEMENT OFFICE PHOTO
TUGUEGARAO CITY, CAGAYAN, Philippines — Whirlwind separately struck two municipalities in Cagayan province on Sunday, destroying at least a dozen houses amid a foul weather spawned by Super Typhoon Pepito (international name: Man-yi).
The first incident happened at past 9 a.m. in a coastal sub-village of Barangay Macanaya in Aparri town, destroying a house and damaging several others, the municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO) reported.
The Aparri DRRMO said a house owned by Cris Andrian Oblea was destroyed while several other houses and nearly farms were affected but no one was reported hurt in the incident.
READ: Tuguegarao City now on red alert as Pepito batters parts of Luzon
“Our house had survived the series of typhoons, but it was blown away in seconds by the (whirlwind),” lamented Oblea, as quoted by the local DRRMO.
At about the same time, a whirlwind also ripped through the villages of Santa Cruz and Bagu in Pamplona town, destroying 12 houses and a Catholic Church chapel, the town’s DRRMO reported.
Still to recover
The Pamplona DRRMO said the whirlwind blew away houses and uprooted trees along Sitio Limittung in Santa Cruz and later smashed houses in Bagu. No one was. also hurt in this incident.
The whirlwind occurred just as Cagayan province remained under Tropical Cyclone Wind Signals (TCWS) due to Pepito.
At 2 p.m. on Sunday, the southwestern portion of mainland Cagayan (Enrile, Tuao, Solana, Tuguegarao City, Piat, Rizal), Kalinga, the southern portion of Apayao (Conner, Kabugao) was under TCWS No. 2 while the rest of the mainland province was under TCWS No. 1.
The province is still grappling from the damage caused to agriculture and the personal and government properties by the series of weather disturbances in recent weeks that affected Northern Luzon.
Initial damage to the province’s agriculture has already been placed at about P1.4 billion, after crops were wiped out by the series of storms that brought heavy rainfall since late September—Typhoon Julian (international name: Krathon) on Oct. 1, Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (Trami) on Oct. 22, Super Typhoon Leon (Kong-rey) on Oct. 27 to Nov. 1, Typhoon Marce (Yinxing) on Nov. 3 and Super Typhoon Ofel (Usagi) that has just left the country.
On Friday, Gov. Manuel Mamba appealed for help from the private sector as the province was already running out of its quick response fund allotted to assist the victims’ calamities. —Villamor Visaya Jr.
