Buhawi victims start rebuilding homes
VICTIMS of the buhawi (mini tornado) in Minglanilla town have started rebuilding their homes as some housing materials donated by the Local Government Unit (LGU) were already distributed.
Antonio Lipot and his nephew PJ started early in fixing their ceiling and roof. Their house was among those affected by buhawi in barangay Calajo-an, Minglanilla. Lipot said that they will be using the galvanized iron (GI) sheets given by their barangay council. But the five GI sheets won’t be enough to cover their entire house.
“It’s a good thing that we were still able to recover some of our old GI sheets, which were thrown more than 20 meters away from our house. We can still reuse them to roof our entire house,” says Lipot.
“When the buhawi hit our area, our entire house was already swinging. I want my house to be stronger now, so I’m strengthening my walling,” says Lipot. But he admitted that it will take him time before the entire structure will be changed since he does not have enough money to buy extra housing materials.
In barangay Tungkil, residents of Deca Homes Phase 3 have also started rebuilding their houses.
Rey John Tantay, an engineer, said he has spent P50,000 out form his pocket to repair the roof and ceiling of his house. He was supposed to wait for Pagibig Fund to grant them the insurance for the repair of their home destroyed by buhawi. But Tantay learned that it will take time before the insurance is released.
“We learned that we still have to provide them with a certification from the LGU, newspaper clippings, and some pictures before it will be processed,” says Tantay.
In sitio Libo, barangay Mohon, Talisay City, barangay officials are planning to seek the help of the City Hall for them to be able to build new houses for the victims of buhawi.
Dario Villaber, barangay Mojon chief said they are asking permission of the owner of the private land, where the victims houses used to stand, for the rebuilding of the houses.
The victims are happy upon hearing the plan of Villaber also on the desired duplex structure for their house.
“I hope the plan will happen soon because it is really hard for us having no decent home,” says Regene Briones, one of the victims.
A buhawi or a small tornado smashed around 70 houses in Minglanilla and Talisay City last Tuesday.
Tornado is a violently rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. Wind velocity of tornadoes top 450 kilometer per hour.
The buhawi that hit Talisay City and Minglanilla had maximum wind speed of 200 kilometer per hour.
