Residents of Aba, Abia State, are lamenting their grief after losing property worth millions in Wednesday’s rain.
The rain, which lasted about four hours, trapped many in their shops. Many residents were forced to trek home as there were limited vehicles on the road after the rain.
Findings showed that traders in major markets of Ariaria, Cemetery, among others, lost goods worth thousands of cash, but traders at Ahia-Ohuru market were said to be the worst hit, especially in line 10, where Mr. Obinna Ogugua reportedly lost 32 bales of clothing worth N90, 000 each.
Other traders in the same line and adjoining lines, who were also affected, couldn’t speak but were seen evacuating submerged goods from their shops.
The area was still submerged when our reporter visited yesterday.
Sources at Ariaria International Market said the most affected were drug dealers.
Residents of Ahuronye Street, Nwaogu, Mathew in the Obuda/Eziukwu and Ohanku Roads in Ndiegoro of Aba South counted their loss, saying the rain has rendered them homeless. Most of them were in the market when the rain started and could not go home to salve their belongings.
It was learned that the timely help of some good Samaritans, who came to the aid of children in a compound after the fence caved in, prevented deaths.
A landlord, Okechukwu Egechi, said “the experience was not new but its damage was of a different dimension”. He attributed the loss to an abandoned drainage which terminates in their area, and which collects water, thereby causing homes to be submerged when a heavy rain falls.
He said:””We have been crying for many years now. I was around yesterday when the rain started, but when I got to my area, I couldn’t enter my house as everywhere was submerged. It’s so bad that we have people representing us who don’t even know us. They don’t adhere to our calls. I didn’t bring out anything from my house.
“My children and tenants merely picked their clothes and moved out when the rain was getting heavier. I nearly lost my 13-year-old daughter in that flood. She was the last to leave the house as I was told but suddenly fell.
“I know it was only God who saved her. She’s not here now because most of them are taking refuge elsewhere, but she actually swam the flood by grace of God and was rescued.” [THE NATION]
