Bauchi residents count losses after rainstorm killed eight, rendered thousands homeless.
It all looked like a normal day in Bauchi, the capital city of Bauchi State, penultimate Saturday as the sun appeared on the horizon and moved steadily from the east to the west. No one suspected the tragedy that was in the air until the entire city found itself at the mercy of Mother Nature.
An evening rainstorm descended on the city, leaving in its wake the destruction of more than 1,500 houses, with no fewer than eight people dead. Since then, it has been tales of sorrow for residents of the city who either lost loved ones in the storm or were rendered homeless and had to become refugees in their own communities.
A victim of the storm, Adamu Saleh, an auto mechanic and father of eight resident in the city, recalled how his hard-earned four-bedroom apartment in Wuntindada, a suburb of Bauchi, the state capital, was destroyed by the storm and the pain and agony that followed the sudden disaster.
“We all crammed ourselves into the corner of a room with nothing to protect us against the night down pour after the windstorm had removed the roof and the wall had been flattened by a kind of wind I had never experienced in my life,” he said as tears rolled down from his cheeks unto his faded and partly torn kaftan.
“I saw the cloud gathering and getting heavier and heavier, hence I knew it was going to rain. I decided to rush home, but while I was still on the way, the rain, spiced with snow, was pouring down heavily. I had to stop at a petrol station for shelter with some other people.
“When the rain had subsided, I ran to the house. But soon after I got home, the wind started blowing fiercely, blowing away everything on its path.
“Suddenly, the roof of my house started screeching and continued as if it was being lifted up by an unseen hand. Then suddenly, the wind lifted the roof and dumped it far away beside those trees (pointing at some trees in the neighbourhood). I went after it, but by the time I came back, the walls too had started falling. We had to leave the building for fear of being crushed to death by the now obviously cracked walls.
“As you can see, the whole house has collapsed except this one room whose half is left standing. When the walls began to fall, my wife ran to pick her box but I shouted at her not to go. Immediately she turned her back, the walls collapsed and pieces of stones injured her heels and the back of her head.”
On his losses, Adamu said: “All our eight bags of corn, five bags of rice, millet, pepper, groundnut and palm oil have been destroyed. All the food items have been soaked beyond recouping. Our clothes, including children’s uniforms, all our earthly possessions, you can see, are wasted.”
By the time the windstorm was over, Adamu and his neighbours were all in tears. Throughout that night, the 57-year-old mechanic and his family had no place to lay their heads. Their neighbours’ conditions were also not better. There was nowhere for them to take refuge and no help came from anywhere.
As a result of their misfortune penultimate Saturday, three of Adamu’s children have been admitted at the Bauchi State Specialist Hospital, with health challenges, including vomiting, pneumonia, fever and headache.
He also lost six sheep, goats and other domestic animals killed by the collapsed wall.
Adamu, who said he had not eaten for three days except for the Dabino his neighbour gave him on Wednesday evening, lamented that nothing else tasted good in his mouth, “and I have no appetite for food”.
“All our beds have been broken by the collapsed wall. Our beddings have been submerged and we have not been able to remove them from the debris. Honestly, I am tired.”
He is, however, grateful to God for saving his life and those of his wife and children.
“I have since been thinking about how I can feed my family, clothe them and pay their hospital bills,” said Adamu who has since appealed to his Mosque and Maiangwa (ward head) for help, especially with food and clothing items.
While Adamu is in pain, want and confusion, Salisu Danbaba’s case would even appear to be worse. Salisu is not married and has no children, but he has an aged mother who has been ill and has lived with him for almost one year receiving medical treatment.
Salisu is the last born of his mother who he said is about 90 years old. He is a civil servant with the Bauchi State Government on Grade Level 07.
He had gone out penultimate Saturday evening, leaving his aged and sick mother at home. But “I was trapped by the heavy rain that followed by the windstorm. When I came back after the storm, I found my sick and aged mother crying with fractured legs and wounds. She had nobody to help carry her out of the building when the rain and storm came. The roof and the building fell on her, breaking her two legs and injuring her hands too.”
By the time Salisu returned home, his neighbours could not say where his mother was. It was in the process of searching for her in the debris that he found her and other damaged household items and personal effects.
“When I saw her among broken bricks, I wept. I tried to free her but it was difficult. So I had to call a passer-by who helped me to draw her out. While we were doing so, my friend came in and assisted in taking her to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital where she is now receiving treatment.”
The last storm, which killed many people and injured many others, has also wreaked havoc in thousands of residential buildings, schools, worship centers, hospitals and other public institutions.
According to the Bauchi State Government, eight persons were confirmed dead, while 120 others were injured. Although the government did not give the number of people displaced by the rainstorm, it said that 349 school buildings were damaged.
Also damaged by the storm were more than 2,000 houses, while more than 3,000 electric poles and cables were damaged or severed, leaving the state capital and its environs in total darkness. The storm also destroyed the Bauchi State water treatment plant. This has also robbed a lot of residents of potable water.
Based on the seriousness of the havoc and the fire disaster that occurred on Sunday night at Azare, President Muhammadu Buhari flew into Bauchi penultimate Thursday afternoon to commiserate with the bereaved families and the government and people of Bauchi State.
While appreciating the President’s visit, Bauchi State governor, Mohammed Abubakar, announced that the state government had started distributing relief materials to victims.
