Cebu experiences ‘worst flooding this year’

Yesterday’s flood scene at the down town area. (Contributed Photo by Edik Doltina)

MANILA, Philippines — A 16-year-old-boy has been reported missing while hundreds of employees and students in Metro Cebu were stranded after heavy rains that lasted two hours Thursday afternoon caused knee-deep floods.

The Cebu Daily News reported that the teen, who has yet to be identified by authorities, went missing when he went to the beach before the rains fell.

The downpour was reported to have started at 3:53 p.m., and ended at 6 p.m.

The Pagasa weather station in Mactan recorded rainfall of 18.2 millimeters in just one hour. A millimeter of rain is equivalent to 5,000 barrels of water poured in a one square kilometer.

Cebu City’s Councilor Dave Tumulak, who heads the city hall’s Command and control center  (C3) said that the Mahiga Creek overflowed, and that the volume of rain overwhelmed the city’s drainage system.

“It was the worst episode of flooding this year,” Tumulak said.

Tumulak also said there were reported incidents of landslides in the sub-villages (Sitio) Pili, Malubog, St. Martin Heights and Lupa in Barangay (village) Sapangdako.

City Hall, meanwhile, dispatched 10 buses to help ferry stranded passengers.

“We should expect flooding with this. We can say it was caused by improper drainage,” said Alfredo Quiblat Jr., chief of the weather station. (For more updates, log on to https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/)