CLEARING. Maintenance crew of the Department of Public Works and Highways clear debris from site of accident.
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – A 24-yearold woman was pinned to death while another was critically injured during a weather phenomenon weather experts described as a “microburst” in Barangay Telebastagan here at about 7:30 p.m. last Monday.
Telabastagan police station head Inspector Louie Sason identified the fatality as Juvily Gardamo, 24, of Barangay del Rosario and the seriously injured as Erlinda Manansala, 54, of Barangay De la Paz Sur in this city.
They were pinned inside a southbound passenger jeepney along the MacArthur Highway in Telabastagan after a huge acacia tree fell on their vehicle as unusually strong winds swept the barangay.
“Teams from the police’s paramedics and the Department of Public Works and Highways had to use chainsaw to cut the tree and free them from inside the jeepney,” Sason said. Gardamo was pronounced dead on arrival at a nearby hospital, while Manansala remained in serious condition in the same hospital as of yesterday, he added.
Hundreds of north and south bound motorists were stranded as it took up to 11 p.m. to remove the fallen acacia tree which blocked the entire width of the MacArthur Highway. “Traffic build-up on the lane towards San Fernando reached southern parts of Angeles City about four kilometers away,” Sason noted.
“The weather event started suddenly with very strong winds coupled with dust that caused visibility difficulties, then very strong downpour followed and lasted for several minutes,” he recalled. In a telephone interview, senior weather
specialist Mar Palafox said that the phenomenon could not be described as a freak tornado, amid reports that the wind was not swirling.
“It could have been what we call microburst which at times result from thunderstorms. It’s a phenomenon that can cause a plane to crash, so at airports, aircraft are now to take off if microbursts are observed during thunderstorms,” he said.
Palafox also said that there are times that microbursts give rise to tornadoes, although this apparently did not happen in last Monday night’s phenomenon in Telabastagan. Temperature in this province has been quite hot in the past days, with thermometer-equipped households reporting as high as 39 degrees centigrade being recorded past noon last Sunday.
The supposed comfortable limit to temperature is 29 degrees centigrade.
