Tornado uproots 19 houses

COTABATO CITY — A tornado struck a farming village in Tupi, South Cotabato the other day, uprooting 19 houses and destroying more than P10 million worth of crops.

The Mindanao Cross, a weekly Catholic newspaper here, said the tornado, which ravaged Barangay Palian in Tupi, was preceded by a heavy downpour.

So powerful was the tornado that it felled five power posts, plunging the entire village and surrounding barangays into total darkness. — John Unson