At least 200 people have been displaced by the flood which ravaged four communities in the Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State.
This came months after predictions by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency as well as the National Emergency Management Agency that some local government areas in the state would experience high flooding this year.
Some of the affected residents said the flooding took them by surprise, saying they have lost life investments and valuables and called on the local and state governments to come to their aid.
While listing some of the affected communities as Umuegbulum 1 and 2, Oyigbo West and Umuokologbe, they said the floods have chased them from their houses, lamenting that some of them have sought refuge in the Internally Displaced Persons camp.
A resident of Oyigbo West, Sunday Anayo, said, “As I speak to you now, there is water everywhere from the road to my compound. Some people have even left their houses because of the situation. The flood is huge.
“From what I heard, the local government has opened one IDP camp and many of the people affected badly are there. Some people will still join them there.”
Another affected person, Chinaza, said, “My mattress, electronics, documents and children’s property were affected. The level of water is something else. Imagine a fridge being covered by the water. More than 200 people now don’t have a place to stay.
“So we just escaped by running away and we found ourselves here. We are just helpless now and we are begging the government to come to our aid because the camp they set up may not contain all those affected.”
Another lady who did not want her name in print said, “We could not even recover anything from our house because of the water. I only brought out my son’s school bag.”
The chairman of the local government, Nwaogu Akara, said the council had started evacuating affected residents to the IDP camp in the area.
Akara stated, “In our meetings, we agreed that we are going to approach the problem in phases and we have swung into action and started preparing. We are done with the first phase.
“The second phase is what we are facing now. The flood has finally arrived. The state government has assisted us in fixing a place and we have started moving displaced persons to the IDP camp.
“We will try our best, as a government, to make sure that our people do not suffer as a result of this occurrence.”
