• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Non-stop rains continued pouring on Negros Occidental from Wednesday until yesterday, due to the low pressure area embedded along the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) reported yesterday that the LPA and the ITCZ will spur cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms in Western Visayas and other areas of the Visayas.
This also prompted the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council to issue extreme emergency alert, as Negros Occidental and other provinces in Western Visayas were placed under red rainfall warning, which means serious flooding is expected and that residents should be ready to evacuate to safety.
Classes in cities of Bacolod, Talisay, Silay, Cadiz, Victorias, San Carlos, Himamaylan and Kabankalan, as well as EB Magalona and Pulupandan in Negros Occidental; at all levels, both in private and public; were also suspended yesterday.
Silay City Mayor Joedith Gallego has extended the cancellation of classes until today.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson raised a blue alert status since Wednesday night “due to the low pressure area embedded along the intertropical convergence zone, which brings continuous rains, possible flooding, and landslides.”
Meanwhile, the search for a missing person, believed to have drowned at a river in Brgy. Guiljungan, Cauayan, Negros Occidental, is still on.
PLt. Col. Gary Resuma, Cauayan police chief, yesterday said that a woman, whose identity he withheld, was bathing at a river on Wednesday night when the water suddenly rose due to heavy rains in the mountain.
As of yesterday, she remains missing.*
