ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/28 August) – Incessant rains spawned by southwest monsoon and further intensified by tropical storm Mina has triggered a landslide in the town of Imelda, Zamboanga del Sur, covering a 50-meter stretch of the national highway with debris.
Albert Johann Jacildo, officer-in-charge of the regional office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, said the landslide happened around 2 a.
m. Saturday along the steep road cut of the national highway in Barangay San Jose in Imelda.
Fortunately, no one was killed nor injured, and there was no property damaged, too, except that the landslide hindered the flow of vehicle traffic, said Jacildo.
He said some commuters had to be transferred from one bus to the other to be able to continue their trip since there is no alternative route for vehicles in the area.
Jacildo said that the occupants of three houses were ordered to evacuate since the two houses at the foot of the slide and one house located on top and near the landslide escarpment were identified as potentially at risk.
He said a geohazard assessment team from his office, which happened to be in Zamboanga del Sur during the incident, reported that around 50 meters of the national highway was covered with roughly 1,500 cubic meters of landslide debris. The landslide scar measured approximately 10 meters in length, 10 meters thick and 15 meters high, the team added.
The heavy downpour also reportedly flooded majority of the Sibuguey River Basin in the municipality of Imelda.
Jacildo said the team revealed that the portion of the steep road cuts along the national highway within the town of Imelda is highly susceptible to landslide.
It is situated along an elongated hill which is made up of thick, highly weathered or altered, loosely compacted volcanic deposits, with the Sibuguey River below it. (MindaNews)
