Tornado disrupts power in Negros Occidental鈥檚 Murcia town, Bacolod City
BLOWN AWAY A tornado blows away the roof of the barracks of BMB Enterprise in Murcia, Negros Occidental on Thursday. — PHOTO COURTESY OF MAYOR GERRY ROJAS
BACOLOD CITY—A powerful tornado triggered power outages in Murcia town in Negros Occidental and in parts of this city on Thursday afternoon.
The tornado, which hit at past 2 p.m., also ripped off the roof of the warehouse of BMB Enterprise and its adjoining barracks in Barangay Blumentritt of the town, and damaged power lines, according to Murcia Mayor Gerry Rojas.
“It was strong. It lasted about 3 minutes,” said Rojas on Friday.
The Murcia Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office personnel and firefighters immediately went to the area after it was reported that power lines in the area, where the subpower lines of Negros Power are also located, had sparked, officials said.
The Nature’s Spring Water refilling property on the other side of the road was also damaged, he said.
“It was a tornado upon verification with Pagasa (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration),” said Irene Bel Ploteña, head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
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According to the state weather bureau, a tornado refers to a violently rotating column of air, a severe thunderstorm feature, that can cause significant damage and has winds exceeding 400 kilometers per hour.
Engineer Mervin Dalian, assistant vice president of the Network Development and Operations Group of Negros Power, said the tornado disrupted power in Murcia town and Barangay Alijis of Bacolod.
The tornado hit Negros Power’s Bacolod-Alijis 69-kilovolt subtransmission line, causing the Alijis and Murcia substations to trip off.
The power at Alijis was restored at 3:08 p.m. on Thursday while that in Murcia was at 4:50 p.m., Dalian said.
