E/R: Rain storm renders hundreds homeless

By Philip Otuo,

Regional Minister Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere [2nd from right] with the Chief of Adankrono [in smock] Nana Sarpong Kumankuma touring the storm-decimated community

Hundreds of people at Adankrono and Kade Zongo in the Kwaebibirim District of the Eastern Region have been rendered homeless by a ferocious storm.

About one hundred houses had their roofs ripped off by the storm, 15 of them got completely flattened.

The victims are currently perching with relatives and friends and in the towns and surrounding communities.

Some of the completely flattened mud houses

Regional Minister Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere toured the storm-ravaged communities to assess the extent of damage.

He later directed officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to compile and do an assessment of all the properties destroyed and see how best the victims could be helped. Mr Sekyere gave an assurance that affected schools will receive quicker response in order to get the children back to the classroom.

The Minister said the collapse of the buildings was made easy by the fact that there are no windbreaks in the communities, coupled with the structural weakness of most the mud houses, some of which are as old as a century.

He, therefore entreated the community members to start planting trees to help avert any major recurrence in future.

Mud houses destroyed by the storm

Regional NADMO Coordinator, Ransford Boakye added his voice to the minister's call for more trees to be planted.

Chief of Adankrono, Nana Sarpong Kumankuma was grateful to the minister for empathising with them. He said they suffered a similar fate in 2011 when the town got flooded following a heavy downpour, which also compelled late President Mills to visit them.



Source: Ghana/StarrFMonline.com/103.5fm