Heavy rain floods houses, markets in Benue

One of the houses affected by flood

Heavy rainfall which started on Saturday night flooded many houses and markets in Makurdi, Benue State capital, rendering many residents homeless.

It was gathered that the heavy down pour started around 11:56 pm on Saturday and lasted till 4.08am Sunday morning. The worst hit areas are Zone 4, Atusa, Nyiman, some areas of Wadatta, Gana all in the capital city of Makurdi.

Ms Jane Iorhember, a residence of Nyima, a mother of two told Punch correspondent that the gushing water woke her up around 2.30 am only to discover that the outside of their house had been flooded.

She said: “I did not know the actual time the rain started but I woke up when I felt something cold in my body only to discover that the mattress was already soaked, this was around 2.30am.

“At this time there was no light so I put on my torch light and tiptoed to the living room where the whole area was flooded and when I peeped outside only to behold the whole compound already flooded and water was flowing into the living room. I rushed and woke up my kids in case of any eventuality, we tried to pack some perishable items like electronics into one of the rooms until the rain subsided around 4 am. You can see that the water is gradually receding from the living room.”

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Similarly, Mrs Kajo within Nyiman, the family of seven live in a thatched house, had packed some of their property outside.

Also, a staff of the state house of assembly, Mr Tikili Simon who spoke to Punch correspondent at Zone 4 one of the affected areas called on the state government to open up drainage in the flooded areas.

He said that some of the flooded areas from Zone 4 to Atusa and Gana were mostly affected because of lack of drainage.

According to him, ‘if you move from here to Atusa and the FADAMA area in Nyima which links Gana down to rail track along Barracks road, they are not conducive because there are no drainages’.

“All these places like Gana and Atusa are developing areas within 16 Kilometer radius, so government should do something to make these places habitable”.

The State Commissioner for Environment, Mr Joseph Ustev described the situation as terrible, saying the major cause of the flood was blockage of drainages.

He said that the officials of the ministry were on tour monitoring the situation to report back to the state governor for urgent attention.