Strong winds and heavy rains lashed Dumaguete City Wednesday night, toppling trees and wooden poles and causing power interruption.

Local weather bureau chief, Edison Culi, of the PAG-ASA, however, said there was no tropical storm then and it was just a thunderstorm accompanied by heavy rainfall and gusts that passed for about an hour. Shortly after sundown Wednesday, Culi said Dumaguete began experiencing light rainfall that escalated to moderate and then finally heavy rainfall, measuring about 13.2 mm.

Gustiness was recorded by the weather bureau at 34 knots or 17 meters per second, strong enough to break off tree branches, topple trees and wooden poles, he added.

At least two pine trees and a wooden pole toppled along Canday-ong Road in Calindagan slowed down traffic as people on the ground and vehicles tried to avoid coming into contact with dangling wires and hitting the felled trees and the leaning pole.

Frantic residents in the area called up the Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative II, expressing fears that somebody were be electrocuted.

The NORECO II trouble-shooting team, however, said the wooden pole belonged to another utility firm, but they obliged by chopping off a portion of the pine tree that was jutting out to the street, and also tied together the cable wires so nearby residents could pass through to their houses.

It took more than 15 hours before a team from Globelines came to repair the leaning wooden pole.

Meanwhile, teams from NORECO II, cable TV and telecommunications companies also worked throughout the night to restore service.

Culi said the unusual weather activity on Wednesday evening was isolated and was not a prelude to the onset of the wet season.

He said, it is still summer time in the country, but there are indications of more rains and at least one or two typhoons in May. *JG

back to top