Freak storm brings balls of ice to Cebu town

PINAMUNGAHAN, Cebu—Angeliza Abadies was doing her usual household chores past noon on Thursday when the skies turned dark.

Then there were thunder and lightning, followed by heavy rains and strong winds. Suddenly, Abadies heard objects falling on the roof of her shack. They were no ordinary objects, but balls of ice the size of marbles that people in Abadies’ community hadn’t seen falling from the sky before.

“The wind was so strong. I couldn’t even lean on something because of the force of the wind,” said the 57-year-old Abadies.

The wind and hail lasted for 10 to 20 minutes. When it was over, 10 houses were destroyed while 170 others were damaged in Barangay Lamac, Pinamungahan town, 64.8 kilometer southwest of Cebu City.

Lamac village chair Maria Flores Cantero said that based on her tally, 94 families have lost their homes, mostly made of light materials.

Cantero said her house was swept about 15 meters off its site. Carpenters doing repairs inside the house suffered bruises, she added.

Abadies said her daughter, Juliet Dimol, 23, who was three months pregnant, and 4-year-old grandson, Jonvic, were inside their house when it was swept by the wind.

The house was found along the road, beside a mango tree, about 5 meters from where it once stood.

Abadies found her daughter curled up in a ball trying to protect her son. While the boy was not harmed, Abadies was worried about the condition of her daughter who suffered bruises and complained of body pains.

She said Dimol fell flat on her back when the house hit the ground.

“No one saw it coming. We were unprepared,” said Abadies.

She said it was the first time that such a phenomenon happened in Barangay Lamac in the 20 years she had been residing in the village.

A weather observer of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) based on Mactan Island in  Cebu admitted that what happened in Pinamungahan was unusual because hails usually occur in temperate and not tropical regions like the Philippines.

Boulivar Artiaga of Pagasa said very dense clouds called cumulonimbus are known to produce hail storms.

Ice crystals that formed in the clouds didn’t melt into liquid to become rain because the clouds were too close to the ground.

For ice crystals to melt and become rain, Artiaga said clouds containing these have to be at least a kilometer above the ground.