Flood renders 801 homeless in Zamfara

The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has said that 801 have been left stranded following a terrible storm in Zamfara state.

Alhaji Sanusi Mohammed, the executive secretary of SEMA in Zamafara, made the disclosure on Wednesday, August 10. 
The flood reportedly struck Maru town in Zamfara. In a telephone interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Muhammad said the affected persons included 180 women and 621 children.

He said 52 houses and farmlands were also destroyed during the disaster which occurred on July 29. The executive secretary also said that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and its counterpart in the state had visited the town.
“NEMA and SEMA have visited the affected town and conducted a joint assessment of the disaster. We will forward such assessment to our respective agencies for immediate assistance.’’

Muhammad called on residents of the state to avoid blocking drainages or constructing structures on water ways to avoid similar disasters. The Nigeria Metrological Agency had recently warned people along major rivers in parts of the country to vacate their houses to prevent loss of lives and property due to anticipated flooding the rivers. Similarly, NEMA had alerted Nigerians of possible flood in some of the states in the north and urged people and relevant authorities to prepare for emergency.

In a related development, no fewer than 29 cows were on Tuesday swept away by a downpour in the Jos East Local Government Area of Plateau state. The flooding also destroyed farmlands and swept away bridges linking the area to other parts of the state. Member representing Jos East Constituency in the Plateau state House of Assembly, Mr Joshua Madaki, told reporters on Wednesday that the heavy rain, which lasted several hours, also disconnected the council secretariat from the people, forcing residents to go through the Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi state before they could reach the council headquarters.

Madaki solicited the intervention of the state government and public-spirited individuals to rescue the affected communities by providing relief materials and reconstructing the damaged bridges to enable the farmers move their produce to the markets.

He said: “The flood did not spare anything on its way as it carried away more than 29 cows. Apart from this, the main roads connecting Fobur-Federe-Angwari at Keven are badly washed away by the flood, including crops such as rice, yam and millet.”  “With the total collapse of roads, no heavy truck can pass through the area,” Madaki buttressed.

Meanwhile, Disaster has hit Kano state as flood destroyed over 5,300 houses in six local government areas of the state. A ccording to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the executive secretary of the State Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation Agency, Alhaji Aliyu Bahsir disclosed this in an interview in Kano on Monday, August 8th. Bashir also said that the affected local government areas were: Bebeji, Dawakin Kudu, Kiru, Shanono, Bagwai and Garun-Malam.

Speaking on those affected, he said: “In Dawakin Kudu alone, more than 2,300 houses were affected, while more than 600 houses in each of the remaining five areas were destroyed by the flood.” When asked about the response of officials to the tragedy, Bashir said that the officials of the agency had visited all the affected areas with a view to assessing the damage cause by the disaster.