Tropical Depression Verbena battered southern Cebu early Tuesday, triggering flash floods across several towns barely weeks after parts of the province were hit by an earthquake and Typhoon Tino, local officials said.
The weather system made landfall in Talisay City at around 2:14 a.m. and quickly moved toward Negros, leaving flooding in its wake, according to the provincial disaster office.
Dennis Pastor, head of the Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), said early evacuations helped avert deaths. “This is the best response, zero casualties,” Pastor told a noon interview on Tuesday.
Flooding was reported in the towns of Ronda, Dumanjug and Barili, though water levels later eased, Pastor said, adding that provincial and municipal disaster teams were deployed in advance to speed up response efforts.
Carcar City also experienced temporary flooding after a spillway overflowed, leaving some rice fields submerged. Roads were later reported passable, while authorities continued assessments and cleanup operations, including at a hospital area that was flooded.
Residents in several northern towns and cities, including Compostela, Liloan, Cebu City, Mandaue and Talisay, were relocated ahead of the storm’s impact on southern Cebu, officials said. In Carcar City, evacuees had been moved to the city gym as early as Monday.
Governor Pamela Baricuatro praised local officials for the proactive evacuations and said she postponed a planned trip to Manila to oversee relief operations. She also directed the PDRRMO to keep monitoring affected communities and to provide food assistance, with additional support planned for households whose poultry and agricultural livelihoods were damaged.
In Barili, flooding hit multiple barangays after the Sta. Ana River overflowed between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., the municipal disaster office said. As of 7 a.m. Tuesday, 126 families, or 425 people, were affected, though many had started returning home.
Carcar City reported about 300 families affected. Mayor Patrick Barcenas said an unfinished spillway in Barangay Poblacion I and overflowing drainage channels contributed to the flooding.
Cebu remains under a state of calamity, but classes have resumed after the storm, officials said.
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