Disaster-prone Freetown lashed by heavy torrential rains, flooding and mudslide: 6 reported dead

August 29, 2022 Publisher and Chief Executive Officer KABS KANU ACTION NEWS, COMMENTARY, EXTENDED COVERAGE, Uncategorized 0

By Kabs Kanu

Sierra Leone’s disaster-prone capital city, Freetown ,  was  at the centre of another massive tragedy yesterday when heavy and unrelenting torrential rains , which had been flooding the city for the past two weeks, resulted in mudslide that took  lives and destroyed homes .

At least six people, including an infant, were killed at Looking Town in the East End of Freetown in this latest environmental disaster in the Sierra Leone capital, where forests that once  protected the soil have been hacked away to accommodate new buildings and residents have been building houses in waterways  in a dangerous expansion up the hills and ravines of the city. The mudslide swept away some dwellings and left at least one or two other buildings hanging precariously in the precipice.

Though this diaster cannot be compared in any way to the  August 14 2017 mudslide which killed thousands of city dwellers, it was still a haunting reminder that Freetown is no longer safe during the rainy season  and it was a pitiful sight to see bodies that had been plucked from the sludge being carried away to the Rokupa Government Hospital morgue on stretchers.

From pictures and video clips of the flooding , it was still a major disaster.

 

THE DISASTER SITE AT LOOKING TOWN

VOLUNTEERS DIGGING OUT THE DEAD

According to reports by citizen journalists on social media, two houses were swept away by the landslide in Looking Town ,while at Tengbeh Town, Kanikay and kaningo, homes were submerged in water and roadways became flowing rivers. Many residents were trapped in a home at Brook Street  where a tree fell on the  building .They were rescued by volunteers. There were even threats of electocution as some electric poles were brought down at Circular Road and and some other parts of the city, while residents of a home at Leicester were counting themselves lucky that they survived when their house collapsed.

Dead body being carried away on a stretcher

THIS WAS THE UPDATE RECEIVED FROM THE NATIONAL SITUATION ROOM AT THE OFFICE OF NATIONAL SECURITY-FREETOWN

Report of 28 AUG ’22 informs of flash floods and landslide in some communities in the Western Area due to torrential rains as follows:
In Kanikay, Culvert, Kaningo and Tengbeh Town, some houses and major roads are reportedly flooded leaving residents trapped in the raging waters and their properties destroyed.
In Looking Town, there was a landslide that covered two houses and some people are reportedly trapped in the rubble. Residents in the community managed to remove five people from the rubble. Four (04) of them had already died and the remaining one, a child (age 7) was rescued alive and taken to the Rokupa Government Hospital.
In Brook Street, a perimeter fence collapsed on a building which left some people trapped in the building.
In Cassava Farm on Leicester Road, a building collapsed due to the torrential rain. However, no casualties have been reported.
At Mary Street by Circular Road, an electrical pole has fallen down due to the torrential rains.
Bai Bureh Road by Bumeh Landfill, a big tree has fallen down barricading the main street. This has prevented vehicular movements and poses threats to pedestrians

 

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