Mystery Rainstorm Uproots Trees, Destroys Buildings In Enugu

Residents of Enugu metropolis are still counting their losses after a Tuesday night rainstorm removed roofs of houses, uprooted trees and pulled down
electric cables.

The situation is worsened by the lockdown in the state, which made the authorities in-charge of such emergencies unable to respond as they observe stay-at-home orders in the fight to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.

At Agu-Abor in the Trans-Ekulu section of the metropolis, many residents were seen repairing some parts of their roofs which wereblown off.

A pastor in the area, whose church was affected, told our correspondent that the wind that accompanied the rain was too much.

He said, “I thought the whole building would collapse. I thank God that it didn’t get to the worst situation, but much was damaged. The hall was flooded.”

A resident of one of the buildings affected, Charles Okoro, said, “I couldn’t sleep in my bedroom. It was waterlogged. I stepped out to buy some beverages and the rain started. It was heavy and I had to wait.

When I returned, it was beyond words. I didn’t close my windows when leaving, so the water flooded the entire room. My only saviour is that my certificates were not there, but all my books are gone.”

At Evervalley part of the metropolis, the havoc was the same. Many buildings had their rooms blown off, with their property destroyed. A resident Nkechi Okpala said the rain also pulled down the electric
poles in the area, thus forcing them into power outage.

THE WHISTLER also saw some trees that were felled by the windstorm.
Among them is the one that fell at the popular Okpara Square, which disrupted vehicular movement. Also, the road on the street of the state’s Civil Service Commission was blocked by a tree that fell
across it. Also the electric poles were brought down, which affected power supply in some parts of the metropolis.

Also affected was the headquarters of Enugu North Local Government Area, where the building that housed the National Youth Service Corps Secretariat, the public relations unit, Birth and Death Registry, National Identity Management Office, and the drugs storage unit of the
council’s health department was also affected.

The council chairman, Emeka Onunze, could not be reached as at the time of filing this report, though efforts were on by the affected workers to rescue whatever was not damaged by the rain. They said on
condition of anonymity that they were called to report to duties as a result of the havoc.

Our correspondent was informed at the EEDC Office, Okpara Avenue, that plans were on to restore power supplies to the affected areas.