Flooding reported along Lacson Street, others roads
By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Several areas of Bacolod City were inundated last Thursday following heavy rains from a localized thunderstorm.
Bacolod City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO) officer-in-charge Dondon Parandas said Barangays 12 and 8 were affected by flooding, which took at least an hour before waters subsided.
In additions, areas along Libertad Street, Palanca Street, Magsaysay-Araneta Streets, Circumferential Road, and portions of Lacson street also reported flooding.
There were also reports flooding was hip-deep in some areas of the city.
Parandas blamed the flooding on garbage clogging drainage systems, which has prompted the CDRRMO to plan declogging operations.
Meanwhile, heavy rains caused a part of the ceiling inside the Simplicio Palanca Sea Terminal at Bredco Port to collapse.
Bredco Port manager Romeo Casela said no one was hurt from the incident and preliminary investigations showed the collapse was due to leakage on the roof.
Meanwhile, in response to the flooding, Bacolod City lone district Rep. Greg Gasataya said he is waiting for the election ban to end before requesting the Department of Public Works and Highways to fast track their flood control projects in the city.
Last July, Gasataya affirmed flooding along the city’s main roads would “soon be a thing of the past,” attributing his projection to the flood control project along Lacson Street that was completed later that year.
Based on latest meteorological survey by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) and other partner weather bureaus, the thunderstorms were caused by a monsoon trough extending from Palawan in the West Philippine Sea to the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
A monsoon trough refers to a convergence of wind patterns, which, during rainy seasons, can contribute to thunderstorms.
PAGASA also said the declaration of the rainy season is expected by either next week or in the first week of June./DGB, WDJ