CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 24 October) – Japhet Catacutan Medel Bendol, a 49-year-old mother of five, has expected the gale force winds but not the big waves generated by tropical storm Kristine, which washed away their house and two other families here on Wednesday, 23 October.
Bendol said a neighbor informed them Wednesday morning that big waves have battered houses near the sea wall in Barangay Tablon.
“By the next morning, our 28-year-old house was gone. Its entire wooden structure was destroyed,” Bendol said.
Cagayan de Oro Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office chief Nick Jabagat said two more houses located outside the seawall were destroyed by big waves triggered by the tropical storm.
Kristine intensified into a severe tropical storm Wednesday afternoon and made landfall at Divilacan town in Isabela province in Luzon at 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, October 24.
Jabagat said the families who owned the destroyed houses had been repeatedly warned to vacate, but they did not.
In their report to the Office of Civil Defense – Region 10 (OCD-10), Jabagat said a total of 76 families or 236 persons were evacuated Wednesday and Thursday as the winds and waves generated by Kristine reached the shores of Cagayan de Oro.
Antonio Sugarol, OCD-10 director, said Kristine affected 130 families, most of whom resided in the island-province of Camiguin.
Sugarol said four houses made of light material worth P54,000 were destroyed in Sagay town, Camiguin. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
