Downpour: Pregnant woman, 6 others drown in Calabar flood
CALABAR — NO less than seven people lost their lives in a rampaging flood as a result of heavy rainfall in Calabar, Cross River State, Wednesday night.
The rain, which lasted several hours, caused severe flooding, uprooted trees, submerged buildings and swept away cars in some parts of the city.
At Abedem, Edim Otop, in Calabar Municipality, flood water uprooted trees, which crashed on a house in a nearby valley, burying six members of a family in the rubble.
*flooded: Calabar under water. INSET: The valley of deaths.
Mr. Amos Akaniyene, owner of the house, who was standing outside, escaped.
However, his pregnant wife, Ekaete, 30; his two children, David and Deborah; mother in-law, Iquo Effiong and two other relatives, Samuel and Anthony, were crushed by the rubble of the collapsed building.
Akpan Ubong, a neighbour, whose house is adjacent to that of Amos, said flood water descending the hill at high speed towards the valley, where their houses are located, uprooted trees on its path, sending them crashing down.
He said the home of Amos, which is directly on the path of the rampaging flood water, was crushed along with its occupants.
It was an emotional scene as the mangled and lifeless bodies were removed from the rubble by men of the Cross River State Fire Service, who rushed to the scene to help rescue the victims.
Swept under
Close to the scene of the collapsed building, a girl, aged about five, was swept away by flood water on Atimbo-Akpabuyo Road into a gully and buried underneath concrete slabs from a destroyed culvert.
Efforts to contact Mr. David Akate, Cross River State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, were unsuccessful as his mobile line was switched off.
A source said the six bodies were removed from the rubble of the collapsed building and deposited at the mortuary of the General Hospital, Calabar.
… kills one, sacks 101 houses in Kebbi
AUTHORITIES of Arewa Local Government Area of Kebbi State said, yesterday, that one person died while 101 households were sacked by flood in the area.
“We lost one life to the flood and 42 persons sustained injuries,” Chairman of the council, Alhaji Ahmed Tanko said in Kangiwa, Kebbi.
He said farmlands were also submerged by the flood.
Tanko said property worth N23 million were destroyed in nine villages, comprising Bachaka, Yeldu, Dukki, Chibiki, Falde, Kuka Bakwai, Kangiwa, Gumindai and Alwata.
He said that the council would spend N10 million on the resettlement of the victims, adding that the council had also distributed 450 bags of assorted grains to the affected persons and 50 bags to widows.
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