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HEAVY rains spawned by a low pressure area caused two planes bound for Iloilo and Tagbilaran cities to divert their flight to Mactan Cebu International Airport for a few hours.
It also caused flooding and landslides in the southern town of Santander, Cebu.
Oceanjet fastcrafts were also affected.
Strong waves caused the Oceanjet’s fastcraft plying the Dapitan-Dumaguete-Tagbilaran-Cebu route to bypass Tagbilaran and head back to Cebu port.
Another fastcraft plying the Cebu-Dumaguete-Tagbilaran route did not proceed to Dumaguete said Bernard Maraasin, Oceanjet operations manager yesterday.
Meanwhile, a provincial road in barangay Liloan in Santander town was damaged by floodwaters while families waded through knee-deep water as they were evacuated from their homes in coastal barangays of Poblacion and Tangbo in Samboan town.
The two Cebu Pacific flights were diverted for a few hours to Mactan.
Samuel Elle, MCIA domestic operation manager, said Cebu Pacific flight 5J 348 from Davao to Iloilo city, was diverted to MCIA at 7:48 a.m..
It was later allowed to proceed to Iloilo at 9:56 a.m.
The Cebu Pacific flight 5J 617 from Manila to Tagbilaran was also diverted to actan at 9:34 a.m. and was allowed to proceed to Tagbilaran only at 12:22 p.m.
Elle, however, clarified that all flights in MCIA proceeded to its normal schedules.
The low pressure area, which caused the heavy rains, was sighted at 120 kilometers southeast of Iloilo or 50 kilometers west of Negros Occidental as of 5 p.m yesterday.
Ella Comahig, weather forecaster for Pagasa in Mactan Island, said the weather disturbance is also caused by the presence of the tail end of the cold front that is affecting Luzon.
“We will continue to have rains over the weekend and maybe until Monday,” she said.
The floodwaters caused by the rains weakened the foundation of a concrete bridge in barangay Liloan, said Santander Mayor Wilson Wenceslao.
This happened when the floodwaters overflowed between 4 and 6 p.m. yesterday.
“I’m just waiting for the district engineering to inspect the bridge because one side is near collapse,” he told in Cebuano.
Wenceslao said he also received reports that huge rocks that were washed from upland barangays blocked a portion of the coastal barangay of Pasil.
A borrowed payloader was used to remove the boulders, he said.
However, Wenceslao could not confirm reports of landslides in barangays Talisay and Canlumacad.
Samboan Mayor Raymond Calderon said families were evacuated in barangays Poblacion and Tangbo and were staying in a covered basketball court in the Poblacion. .
He said at least two families in sitio Kinabonbonan were left homeless after floodwater washed out their shanties. WITH EDITORIAL ASSISTANT BERNADETTE PARCO AND CORRESPONDENTS JULLY VENUS CUIZON AND JUSTIN ANJULI K. VESTIL
