MARIBOJOC-Residents of sitio San Juan at the wharf area of this coastal town were jolted from their sleep Tuesday night by a strange phenomenon. Seawaters rose to an unusual level and flooded the streets leading into the area where the lighthouse stands. Maribojoc Waterworks Service Management Office Manager Ric Nacorda who lives in the port area, told the Post in an exclusive interview at his office Wednesday afternoon, that he was awaken from his deep sleep at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday by the pounding sound of waves rushing to the dilapidated house of a neighbor. Jumping out of his bed, he rushed outside his residence and discovered to his amazement that the water in the streets were knee deep.

The seawaters continued to rise until 12 midnight and it was only at two o'clock early dawn of Wednesday that the flooding seawaters subsided, Nacorda narrated. As late as 12 midnight , Councilor Fructuoso Redulla Jr. and Municipal Foreman Demoy Balum then checked the area. Redulla narrated to Nacorda that upon arriving home at his Sagmonan, Dipatlong residence after attending a sitio fiesta at Saug, barangay Bayacabac when he learned about the incident from a text message he received. According to Redulla, this might be signs of a dreaded global warming. He then warned the people who came to him that they should not indiscriminately throw plastic containers and wrappers into the sea or elsewhere. Nacorda, for his part, further told the Post that the 70-year old neighbor, Rosenda Dumandan bewailed that in her lifetime, it was the first time that she witnessed this strange, unusual phenomenon. It was only during the feast of St. John , when they celebrate sitio fiesta, that they expect the seawaters to rise to a level higher than normal as expected. But never had there been an instance that it overflow to the streets at the port area. Another neighbor, Benny Dumandan, whose house is fronting the lighthouse, revealed that, wonder of wonders, he saw on that night the waves coming from opposite directions– Manga and Punta Cruz–converged at the area where National Power Corp. power barge used to dock.