Agusan del Sur, Philippines Hit by Landslide
By Ben Serrano
The provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (DRRMC) of Agusan del Sur mobilized its personnel Saturday to assess the extent of damages brought about by a landslide on roads, farms and houses in Loreto, Agusan del Sur on Friday afternoon.
The landslide area is 168 kilometers away from this city, Caraga region’s capital.
No one was reported injured so far.
The DRRMC also confirmed that a waterspout, or a tornado over water, hit Barangay Poblacion, also of Loreto town, Friday morning.
In a report to the Philippine Information Agency Caraga regional office, village tribal chieftain Datu Parang-Parang said the landslide occurred in Sitio Mactan, Barangay Kasapa, Loreto, Agusan del Sur almost Friday noon.
The Loreto Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council reported that at least 15 kilometers stretch of backwater, stagnated in a 50-meter deep cleft at Pangangawan area near Bagul Creek in Barangay Kasapa, caused the landslide as junction of the small body of water that connect both Adgawan and Umayam rivers collapsed.
Last Jan. 2, a landslide due to continuous but moderate rains also occurred in the same spot but no one was reported injured nor properties destroyed.
Meanwhile, a water spout or tornado over water, which at times carries small fishes, hit the house of Barangay Kagawad Eliseo Ong of Barangay Poblacion, also in Loreto town earlier on Friday morning.
Loreto police chief Sr. Insp. Wilson Corpuz said no one was hurt or injured in the incident.
The local weather station office of Philippine Astronomical , Geophysical and Atmospheric Services Administration (PAG-ASA) here, through its Officer-In-Charge Engr. Lolit Binalay, explained that waterspouts at times form funnel-shape hundreds of feet wide, extending from the surface of the sea or a lake to the cloud base and usually caused by violent circulation of air.
Binalay said waterspouts are capable of siphoning particles like small fish when it occur at lake, sea or rivers or any body of water like the Agusan Marsh. Small fish in small to moderate to large number are siphoned or brought up to the sky by a waterspout and at certain point released in the air
Binalay said the waterspout phenomenon has already did occur in Lake Mainit in Agusan del Norte and Surigao del Norte provinces and some areas in the country.
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