More than 140 persons have been rendered homeless by a windstorm,
which wrecked havoc on Ogbe-Udu community, Udu council area of Delta
state recently.
The storm, which blew off schools’ roofing sheets, houses and places
of worship, also destroyed a large expanse of farmland in the
predominantly farming community.
Narrating the experience of the victims of the windstorm to visiting
political leaders of the council area, a community leader, Mr. Johnson
Onajite, said not less than 140 persons had been displaced by the
disaster, adding that most affected persons had been sleeping on bare
floor in the places where they had manage to find temporary refuge.
He, however, expressed hope that the plight of the victims of the
storm might soon be alleviated, pointing at the level of concern so
far shown by the political leadership of the council area.
“My sadness has somehow been alleviated by the presence of the team;
the lawmakers and the council executives. The number of people
affected by this storm is about 140 and many of them who were made
homeless were given accommodation by some good Samaritans and some of
them had to sleep on the corridors of some sympathizers, some had to
manage to sleep inside their houses which roofs had been blown off by
the storm”, he said.
Inspecting the level of devastation, the commissioner representing
Urhobo ethnic nationality in the Delta State Oil Producing Areas
Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Joseph Itirwe, who was in the
company of the member representing the Udu Constituency in the Delta
State House of Assembly, Hon. John Ojitobor, and other politicians,
promised the people that assistance would come from the state
government.
Commenting on the disaster, Itirwe said “it’s really devastating and
unexpected. You know it’s a natural phenomenon and what we need do is
to see how the community people can be assisted and I know the
government has expressed its own feeling too about what has happened.
“I just want to call on the community to be patient with government,
especially with the commission some time to see what they can do to
help the victims”, Itirwe said.
Also speaking, the chairman of Udu council area, Jite Brown, said
government would not abandon the people to their fate, calling on the
Delta State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to rise to its calling
by providing for some of the immediate needs
“The destruction is very devastating, what we sa\w today, we never
knew the storm was this much, but the council, as you well know, is
limited today because of the paucity of funds, but we shall do
something.
“We can’t leave these people to suffer this much without our
intervention. We equally appeal to the State Emergency Management to
come to the aid of the people as well as to the federal government”,
Brown said.
Meanwhile, the devastating effect of the storm could be seen on the
level of destruction which uprooted heavy trees on school buildings,
while no death was recorded as students in hostels have all gone on
holidays.