NADMO officials assess damage caused by floods(Saturday, September 8, 2012. page 3)

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga Officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), in the Upper East Region are carrying out assessment in various communities in the Upper East Region hit by floods last Wednesday in order to extend help to those severely affected. Over six hours of torrential rains in parts of the region rendered thousands of people especially those in low lying communities homeless as their homes where inundated by volumes of water. Some communities such as Dacheo were cut off from Bolgatanga, the regional capital as the bridge that connected the communities to the capital had been washed away. The deceased was crossing an overflowing bridge with a donkey when the flood water carried him away. He was later found dead.One person, who attempted to cross the bridge died in the floods The Bolgatanga Municipal Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization, Mr. Timothy Anas, gave the name of the deceased as Abaane Kologo. Other communities such as Nyariga, Zuarungu-Moshe and Tindonsobligo were said to be hardest hit as they were completely cut off from the rest of the communities and the regional capital, Bolgatanga following the collapse of the culverts linking the community to the Bolgatanga Township. At Kobore in teh Bawku West District, the White Volta burst it banks and flooded farmlands closed to the river while the road linking Bawku and Zebilla was rendered impassable for several hours. The heavy rains in the region on Wednesday, which started at 6 am in the morning and lasted till 3pm in the afternoon and this has come to aggravate the recent spillage of the water from the Bagre Dam. The Regional Coordinator of NADMO Mr. Patrick Akake told the Daily Graphic that his organisation has deployed personnel into the field to collate data on all those who have been affected and said as much as possible effects will be made to extend assistance them depending on the resources available to them. Mr. Akake said last week, a full load of truck with relief items was received but those items would only be distributed when full assessment of the situation was conducted. He advised farmers whose crops had been submerged not to attempt to harvest such crops because they may be risking with their lives. At Tindonsobligo in the Bolgatanga Municipality, some residents told the Daily Graphic that they had to seek refuge with family members elsewhere in town as the flood waters submerged their rooms. “It was a terrifying sight. I had to quickly resettle my family members with some relatives in other parts o f the municipality as soon as I realised the water had risen up enough to cause havoc”, said Issah Abass a resident in the area told this paper. “As you can see, most of our personnel effects such as television sets, mattress, books etc are all soaked up in water. We simply have to wait for the water to drain to know the extent of damage”, he added. One observation made by this reporter was that most of the houses affected in the Bolgatanga Municipality were those in low lying communities which is noted for perennial flood disaster in the region. -End-