RAIN STORM HITS BONGO DISTRICT KILLING ONE 10/05/16

A devastating rain storm hit the Bongo District of the Upper East Region on Monday night leaving in its trail several houses including educational institutions and health facilities with ripped-off roofs and cracked walls.  

A rapid assessment team comprising officials from the National Disaster Management Organisation [NADMO], the District Directorates of the Ghana Health Service and the Ghana Education Service and some key staff of the Bongo Assembly which conducted a field inspection on Tuesday morning also learnt that four people got injured in the wake of the storm.

When the Information Services Department contacted the Bongo District NADMO Officer, Alhaji Rafiu Tahiru on Wednesday morning for updates, he reported that three of the injured were later treated and discharged from the district hospital while unfortunately one Ali Nyaaba, a little boy of about 10 years lost his life. The boy sustained a crack in the head and a broken left hand when he was hit by a falling branch of a mango tree under which had gone to pick mango fruits during the ravaging storm.   

Alhaji Tahiru further disclosed that while still counting, as many as 67 houses in the Sambolgo community, 13 houses in the Boko community, 16 houses in Sikabisi and 22 houses in the Agomo area had their roofs ripped off. Meanwhile, additional three houses in Nabisi and eight houses in the Bungu community as well as some 13 schools and three CHPS compounds also had either some of their roofing sheets or their entire roofs blown off.

The Balungu primary school, Sambolgo DA primary and Junior High schools, Bungu primary, Namoo LA primary school and the Asakulsi primary schools were among the many educational institutions which got damaged in the storm. Meanwhile, the Abokobisi, Feo and Sikabisi CHPS compounds were some of the health facilities hit by the storm obstructing health services as registers, medicines and other supplies got soaked in the rain that accompanied the storm.

Bongo District Directors of Health and Education who were part of the inspection team both noted that if urgent and immediate help did not come to their institutions, health service delivery and academic work respectively would be negatively impacted. They therefore called on Non-Governmental Organisations, individuals and government to immediately find remedies to the havoc resulting from the dangerous storm.

The NADMO officer however stated that the field visit was timely as it afforded him to get first-hand information on the incident. He said he was putting together a rapid assessment report which will be forwarded to the NADMO headquarters and also copied to the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council for the appropriate support to victims and institutions alike.