General News of Thursday, 23 October 2008

Source: GNA

Rainstorm renders 300 people homeless

Agogoso (Ash) Oct. 23, GNA - A severe rainstorm that hit Agogoso, a farming community near Nyinahin on Thursday has rendered about 300 people homeless with six of them sustaining various degrees of injuries. The six were rushed to the Nyinahin Government Hospital and have since been treated and discharged. The roofs of sixty houses including classrooms of the local primary school and a kindergarten were blown off. The turbulent stormy wind which preceded a severe rainstorm started about 5.30 pm in the evening. It also destroyed food stuffs and other cash crops running into thousands of Ghana cedis. Meanwhile the victims are putting up with friends and relatives. In another development, the room of Mallam Abdul-Rahman, a resident of the village also caught fire, the blaze which lasted for about one hour before it was control, destroyed personal effects and a cash of 300 Ghana cedis. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Mr Wilberforce Owusu-Ansah, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Atwima-Mponua and Mr Osei Kwadwo, District National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) Officer have visited the victims. The DCE advised the people to plant trees to serve as windbreaks, whiles also embarking on maintenance work on their houses to enable them stand the vagaries of the weather. Mr Kwadwo also advised house owners to engage qualified electricians to wire their houses to prevent fire outbreaks.