About 700 residents in Yapei rendered homeless after rainstorm

Another rainstorm disaster in the Savannah Region has rendered about 700 residents from three communities homeless with several properties worth thousands of cedis destroyed.

The affected communities include, Yapei, Sangkpala and Kusawgu all in the Central Gonja District.

According to Central Gonja District Operation Officer, Alhandu Alhassan, officials from the district office have been on the ground assessing the level of destruction to enable them to reach out to the victims.

“In fact, each of these affected three communities has suffered a great loss of properties because many of their homes have their roofs ripped off and foodstuffs destroyed. But no injuries have been recorded for now.”

Also, the one-hour rainstorm saw the electricity supply in Yapei cut off. Mr Alhassan said the wires connecting the main transformer were cut as a result of the heavy impact of roofs that were ripped off from buildings.

Other properties affected include schools buildings, market structures and electricity poles among others.

The AssemblyMan for Yapei Electoral Area, Iddi Kamil said, “today is a sad day in my community.
It all started between 3 pm and 4 pm from the Eastern part of the community.”

“People have to sleep in their neighbours’ houses till daybreak. Because yesterday was Yapei market, most of them were in the market and were not aware of what was happening in their homes. They thought that the havoc was happening at the market until they got to their various homes and realised that their homes were also hit.”

Mr Iddi Kamil stated that calls were made to both the district assembly and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) offices to come to the aid of the people.

He added that “most of them especially, the women told me that the storm has blown away their money and so many of them have lost a lot.”

In March and early April this year, five other communities in the West Gonja Municipality namely Frafra number 1, 4 and 6 including Alhassankura and Hangarline were also hit by a storm that displaced residents and destroyed properties.