A landslide covered five houses and closed a road in barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City, following a thunderstorm on Wednesday night.
The storm also whipped up a whirlwind that hurt a woman in Talisay City.
“Frequent rains loosened the soil,” said Alvin Santillana, head of the Cebu City Risk Reduction Management Council (CCRMC).
The council, which had been on alert since July 22, evacuated at least 14 families in barangays Guadalupe, Kalunasan and Sapangdaku amid signs of oncoming landslides.
About 8 p.m. in Talisay’s barangay Consojong, resident Zoren Racaza said he spotted a “whirlwind” that lifted their basins, pails and tore away a gate post.
“The wind was spinning [and] carried away our neighbors’ belongings,” Racaza said.
Resident Angeling Daan, who was eating supper, sustained cuts and bruises in her arms and legs after she went outside just as the whirlwind uprooted and hurled a germelina tree in her direction.
“Before the whirlwind dissipated, it hit an electric post, which blew up,” causing a power outage in 15 houses, Racaza said.
Mae Casilagan of the weather bureau in Mactan said thunderstorms can bring whirlwinds.
About 8:20 p.m., loosened soil in Guadalupe’s sitio Sandayong slid and hit five houses. A road was closed after cracks were seen on the pavement.
Seven families were evacuated and a warehouse had to be demolished to lessen stress on the soil, said Romulo Guarin of CCRMC.
At 9:04 p.m., an electric wire at the University of San Carlos main campus gym gave off sparks after getting hit by strong winds.
At 9:45 p.m. in sitio Lareha, Kalunasan, soil started to move. Seven families were asked to evacuate after the wind uprooted a bamboo tree, which fell on a house.
At 8:23 a.m. yesterday, landslides hit sitio Dangking and Baksan in Sapangdaku.
At 10:30 a.m., soil erosion in sitio San Jose Village, Kalunasan and damaged a house and two structures. Erosion toppled a fence in barangay Capitol Site.
Electric posts were damaged in Ma. Luisa subdivision, barangay Guadalupe and the University of San Carlos main campus, said Ethel Natera, corporate communications manager of Visayan Electric Co.
The firm was still repairing damaged posts as of 10 a.m. yesterday.
Last Saturday, officials of barangay Tisa placed sitios Tambisan, Santa Tesresita Village, Sambag, Lupa, La Paloma Village, Pilipog, Tana and Lower Manhole in a state of calamity.
Tisa councilor Eduardo Cabulao said they need a drainage system to control runoff water from the upland Monterrazas de Cebu development project, which includes 40 lots with an area of 70 hectares in the barangay.
Engineer Monte Carla Ragasajo of the Cebu City Department of Engineering and Public Works said the city government earmarked P17 million in last year’s Supplemental Budget 5 to improve drainage in Tisa.
The project cannot be implemented without an agreement with La Paloma Subdivision homeowners, who are divided into two factions, she said.