Leyte Mudslide

A mountain broke and mud covered barangay Guinsaugon in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte, some 525 km southeast of Manila (rough estimate based on this Philippine map.)

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer's 'Mountain broke, and mud came rushing', the mudslide occurred at around 10:00am (Feb 17, 2006). At about 10:36am, a slight tremor was recorded some 40km from St. Bernard.

In other reports, a 2.6 magnitude earthquake struck before mud fell down the slopes of Mt. Can-abag in Leyte.

Now this is the strange part, and I wonder if other people experienced this: At around 10:50am yesterday (Feb 17), there was a freak ipu-ipo (tornado) that swept through some parts of Quezon City (Metro Manila). Dust and leaves were kicked and swirled about, but unlike the typical ipu-ipos that sometimes suddenly appear, the wind was stronger than usual.

Trees got momentarily bent about 30 degrees from the vertical. The strong and noisy wind lasted about 10 seconds. People had this frightened is-it-the-end-of-the-world look on their faces.

I wonder if this has anything to do with what happened in Leyte. Any other Metro Manila residents out there who experienced unusual wind patterns yesterday morning between 11:00am and noon?

(And who is this mysterious old woman who allegedly warned several people in various St. Bernard villages and barangays that tragedy would strike... three days before the landslide occurred?)

Update: A relative who lives near the boundary of Marikina and Antipolo reports that at around 11am, there was an unusually strong wind that sent her all laundry flying to the roof.

[ First posted on 02/18/2006 by Manuel Viloria ]