Heavy rains and strong winds on Wednesday afternoon in San Fernando and Mexico Pampanga resulted in fallen trees clogging roads, with some trunks measuring up to four feet, causing slow moving traffic from 7pm to midnight.

Robin Ignacio, senior manager for Traffic Operations at Northern Luzon Expressway said while all lanes have been reopened by 12 noon Thursday, it may take a week to fully clear the trees.

“There are many trees that have fallen. The cut logs and branches are stored in the embankment. Our management said that it will take one week before all of them (trees) could be cleared. As of now, all of our driving lanes, they’re all open.” Ignacio told The Daily Manila Shimbun in a phone interview.

“Our team says it (trees) might be close to 100…The others have trunks as big as four feet. That’s why it’s not easy to clear because it’s heavy. Using chainsaws. We had to use many chainsaws to cut them into several parts so we can carry them,” Ignacio said.

Ignacio said when trees began falling due to the winds and rain ''traffic congestion was past San Fernando northbound exit.'' It (slow-moving traffic) lasted from 7 pm until around midnight,” he said.'

Initial clearing operations began from 5 am to 12 noon Thursday, he said. The first lane was opened at 7:30 am, while the rest of the lanes opened at 11 am.

''Since there is still a lot of traffic, I think around noontime, I mean, past 12:00, that’s when the accumulated traffic loosened,” Ignacio said.

Ignacio said a tree branch hit seven vehicles on Wednesday evening but they have yet to determine how damage to vehicles will be addressed. Jaspearl Tan/DMS