Cebu, Philippines— Water came fast and brown. Tropical storm bands stalled over the Visayas Tuesday, dumping hours of rain on already soft ground. Creeks jumped their banks. Several people were injured as flash floods tore through low-lying barangays.
The Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office logged flooding in parts of Leyte, Cebu, and Negros Occidental. In some towns the water rose a meter in under an hour. Houses built on riverbanks went first. Wood, tin, plastic, all moving.
Officials said injuries came from debris and slips, not drowning. A child was hit by a plank. An elderly man fell while crossing a flooded alley. Clinics treated cuts and fractures. Numbers are still being checked.
Local disaster officers said the storm's outer rainbands were worse than the wind. PAGASA had issued heavy rainfall warnings Monday night. But power cuts killed many text alerts. People woke up to water at their beds.
In Ormoc, rescuers used rubber boats to pull families from rooftops. In northern Cebu, the main coastal road disappeared under mud. Farmers watched rice fields turn into lakes. Two bridges were impassable.
"The river sounded different this time," a barangay captain in Leyte told field officers. "Like rocks inside it. Then it was in the houses." He said his team evacuated 60 people before noon.
The Visayas knows this pattern. Logging upstream, quarrying, informal housing in floodplains. Each storm exposes it. The national disaster council said it deployed quick response teams with food packs and hygiene kits.
Tropical storm movement remains erratic over the eastern Philippines. More heavy rain is expected for the Visayas through Wednesday. The ground cannot absorb it.
Tonight rescue boats are still out. Water has not fully receded. The count of injured is likely to grow.
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