While some residents are temporarily seeking shelter in churches and schools, others are seeking refuge with relatives on higher grounds.

Affected communities in the Amenfi West District include Wassa Dunkwa, Aboi Nkwanta Samreboi among others.

Flood waters from River Tano and other tributaries have all overflown their banks, forcing residents nearby to abandon their houses, livestock and other properties.

These residents are predominantly farmers, but as the flood waters have taken over pathways to their farms, they have had to abandon their farms for days.

Some residents believe it’s payback time by the rivers as they suspect the overflow is as a result of the heavy silt that has piled up in them due to illegal mining activities.

The District Chief Executive for the Wassa Amenfi West District, George Agyiri, who was in Accra at the time of the incident for the nationwide orientation for MMDCEs, visited the victims at Samreboi shortly after arriving in the district.

After touring the affected areas, Mr. Agyiri described the situation as “a real disaster” which has befallen the people in his district.

He told Citi News that “When we counted the affected households, we had over 197.”

“It’s a serious issue that has happened to the people of Amenfi West but we are most grateful to schools and churches here who have offered their buildings to house the over 1,000 residents. We are particularly grateful to management of Samartex Company for providing us with over 400 mattresses as well as other items and food stuffs and we call on others to come to the aid of our people”.

Meanwhile, the Western Regional Coordinating Council in collaboration with the regional NADMO office mobilized some relief items for the affected victims.

The Deputy Western Regional Minister, Eugenia Gifty Kusi, together with the Western Regional NADMO boss Abdul Ganiyu, presented relief items such as additional mattresses, buckets, mosquito repellents, mosquito nets among other items to be distributed by the Wassa Amenfi West District to the victims.

Mrs. Eugenia Kusi noted that, “it’s a difficult situation and we understand what you are going through. It is for this reason the government has asked the regional delegation to present these items to be distributed to you to provide some relief to you and we pray the situation goes down so you could return to your normal duties”.

Mr. Abdul Ganiyu said a team of field inspectors had already visited the affected victims a day before the items were provided for by the government “and so we will ensure that the items end up in the hands of the victims and not into wrong hands.”

Traditional leadership in the community were grateful for the gesture.

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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The most affected residents are those in Akyinim and Botukule, suburbs of Axim.

They had their buildings and properties affected by the rain.

Mr. Paul Blay, a 56- year-old farmer who narrowly escaped death after his mud house caved in during the rains, is currently receiving treatment at the Axim government hospital.

Mr. Frank Okpenyen, the MCE of the area during a visit to the affected victims, expressed government’s sympathy to them and said the Assembly would find ways of restoring their lost property.

The victims, mostly elderly women, had to be assisted by staff of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to salvage the debris of their belongings.

The MCE urged the residents to avoid indiscriminate disposal of refuse and endeavour to desilt the drains in the area, to avert the re-occurrence of the disaster.

The affected people were advised to stay with their relatives as authorities work to find lasting solutions to their problem.

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Source: GNA

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Torrential rains caused the Kalamu river, which flows through the city of Boma into the River Congo, to overflow for two hours before the waters receded, washing some of the victims across the border into Angola.

The waters left parts of the city, Democratic Republic of Congo’s sole Atlantic port, covered in up to a metre of mud and a search was under way to dig out more bodies that may be buried.

“The rains on the night of Monday to Tuesday in Boma have caused at least 50 deaths,” Jacques Mbadu, governor of Kongo Central province told AFP.

“We buried 31 bodies on Wednesday and we expect to get about 20 more bodies back today that ended up across the border in Angola,” Mbadu added.

Mbadu said the waters hit a peak of two metres (six feet) above their usual level, destroying at least 500 homes and leaving several thousand people homeless.

Boma, which lies near the mouth of the River Congo around 470 kilometres (300 miles) southwest of the capital Kinshasa, is home to between 150,000 and 200,000 people.

“This is a cyclical phenomenon which happens every 10 years. It last happened in January 2015 but with climate change it’s now happened again in December 2016,” Mbadu said.

Locals told AFP that two of the city’s three districts were still covered in mud, up to a metre deep in some places, and described tragic scenes as the waters rushed dramatically into their houses.

“I lost my two children, carried off by the waters, which rose up to three metres like a tsunami. I could only watch them as they were washed away,” Faustin Lutete, a government employee, said.

Fisherman Jean-Marie Kola said he just had time to “run far away, as our house was showing signs of fragility. It collapsed later.”

Shopkeeper Camille Inonga said he had “lost everything” in the flash floods.

“My shop is covered in mud. I can’t get in there. This is a whole life gone up in smoke,” he said.

Provincial governor Mbadu said the authorities were encouraging those left homeless by the floods to seek shelter with relatives to avoid “creating more problems”, rather than putting them in reception centres.

He said he had been working with a Dutch company to divert the “waters of the Congo river, whose enormous flow puts pressure on the Kalamu, to try to prevent these floods happening again.”

Congolese towns and cities are typically built up in a haphazard fashion and government services to deal with natural disasters are practically non-existent.

Floods in Kinshasa in December 2015 left more than 30 people dead and 20,000 families homeless, most of them in the capital’s slums, where residents were left to battle with their bare hands through noxious mud, slime and fecal matter.

Despite its vast mineral wealth, Congo is classed among the world’s poorest countries and two thirds of its 70 million inhabitants get by on less than $1.25 a day.

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Source: AFP

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An over 3-hour long downpour swept through areas such as Oyoko, Abrewa Nkwanta, Asokore, Pipeline, Effiduase and Highways, displacing many families and washing away assets including cars.

This is the third time the Koforidua township has suffered destruction from floods after two similar incidents last week and a fortnight ago.

Some affected shop owners told Citi News that although the areas are known to be flood-prone, the havoc wrecked by Sunday’s rains has been the worst.

Citi News’ correspondent, Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku, said some fire officers who arrived at a flooded fuel station at Abrew Nkwanta were helpless as the situation was beyond their control.

Some affected residents accused a road contractor assigned to reconstruct deplorable roads in the area of a poor job, hence the regular floods.

“About three (3) years ago the contractor came and reconstructed the roads and fixed small culverts instead of a big one we had previously. Since then, we’ve not had our peace in this area because since the the beginning of this month, we’ve been experiencing floods anytime it rains so we have a big problem here.  Government must come and help us because we don’t know what to do,” an affected resident lamented.

Another resident who spoke to Citi News said, “I have lost a deep  freezer, mattress and other things. I don’t know where to sleep so I am just hanging around. We are hoping the water subsides then maybe we can do something about the situation.”

‘Two die in flood’

Last week,  two people died after heavy rains ravaged parts of Koforidua in the Eastern Region. The town was submerged in flood waters which washed away parked vehicles and other property.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Three people died in North Carolina, said Governor Pat McCrory, who called Matthew “a very, very serious” storm.

In Georgia, three people died, including a wheelchair user after two trees fell on his home. Four people were earlier killed in Florida.

Matthew has been the most powerful storm to make US landfall in more than a decade.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes, and more than a million left without power.

The storm also brought heavy flooding to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina.

Matthew has already caused nearly 900 deaths in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic as it travelled northwards over the past few days.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has downgraded Matthew to a Category One hurricane, with maximum sustained winds having decreased to 75mph (120km/h).

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley warned people to stay in shelters and not to try to go back home over the weekend.

“Between downed power lines and trees, and then just unsafe structures – bridges, all of those things.

Officials said emergency responders have carried out multiple water rescues from cars and homes.

The NHC said: “The combination of a dangerous storm surge, the tide, and large and destructive waves will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline.”

Nearly 1.6m homes and businesses in the south-east of the US were left without power.

Hurricane Matthew first made landfall in in the US in South Carolina but its edges had previously battered the coasts of Florida and Georgia.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), which is the UN’s weather agency, had warned that the hurricane would remain dangerous regardless of whether or not it made landfall in the US.

Parts of the city of Savannah, Georgia have been submerged in several feet (one foot = 30cm) of water.

Hurricane Matthew left up to 90% of some parts of Haiti destroyed, officials say.

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Source: BBC

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