Frequent tornadoes puzzle residents and experts

RAGAY Camarines Sur (Aug. 21, 2011) – Residents of this province are beginning to be puzzled by the frequent occurrence of tornadoes in the past months, with another tornado reportedly occurring in barangay GRS, Ragay town the other day

The office of the Environment Disaster Management and Emergency Response (EDMERO) of the provincial government said the tornado was only reported on Thursday (August 18) with no details on the damage from the “twister”.

Ragay Mayor Ricky Aquino reported that the tornado caused minimal damage, but local residents reported the tornado left several houses stripped of galvanized roofs and they saw crops uprooted by the tornado.

EDMERO records showed that since June this year tornadoes have hit the towns of Calabanga and Ocampo

In the upland village of Binanuanan Pequeña, Calabanga where a tornado also hit ten years ago, a twister swooped down the village at near midnight last June 24 while the residents were asleep, destroying 11 houses, 2 totally demolished. More than fifty residents mostly upland farmers needed the assistance of the local government to rebuild their dwellings.

On August 10, about 3:30 P.m . before a heavy rain, a big tornado damaged 28 houses, including some with concrete structures, and totally destroying 4 other dwellings in Zone 2 and 4 of San Francisco, Ocampo town.

According to Barangay Captain Teodoro Concepcion, EDMERO and the Ocampo local government have assisted 32 families or 177 persons rebuild their houses and the local electric cooperative had to install back an electric post that was uprooted by the tornado.

Fred Consulta, a PAGASA weather expert based in Central Bicol State University of Agriculture, (CBSUA) PAGASA station, said recently that the frequent occurrence of tornadoes in Bicol was non-existent about 10 years ago. Recently cloud formation tend to come down before a heavy rainfall and this might be the factor triggering formation of tornadoes.

Consulta also reported that tornadoes swooped down Basud and Vinzons in Camarines Norte province followed by heavy rains brought by tropical storm “Juaning” in late July. (SONNY SALES)