Trees, power posts felled; houses in Basilan damaged by winds

COTABATO CITY — Some 400 tall trees were felled — damaging electric posts and a number of houses made of light materials — as extraordinarily strong winds pummeled parts of Basilan at about dusk Thursday.

Local officials in Lamitan City reported on Friday that two members of a Muslim family in the seaside Barangay Calugusan were hurt when a tall coconut tree broken in the middle by the powerful winds landed on their house.

Personnel of the Lamitan City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said that cottages along the beachfront resorts in Calugusan were also damaged.

“It was something so unusual. It was our first time to experience that here in our island province,” Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay, chairman of their multi-sector City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told reporters via text message on Friday.

Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said personnel of their units in Basilan had been mobilized for clearing of debris and humanitarian missions.

Police and Army officials in the adjoining cities of Lamitan and Isabela told reporters that at least a dozen mini power pylons and posts got toppled when falling trees hit the transmission cables connected to each of the structures.

Gov. Hadjiman Salliman has mobilized all personnel of the Basilan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office to clear roads that got blocked with trees felled by the strong winds.

Salliman said he has directed the provincial government’s social welfare office to check on possible displacement of residents for them to be provided with essential relief support.