Rainstorm renders a family of 23 homeless in Jalingo
“We are homeless. All our furniture and electronics have been shattered to pieces by the rainstorm and if not for kind neighbours, we would all have been sleeping outside,” Veronica Hassan said in an emotion laden voice. Gazing around the smashed zinc sheets, the splintered wood, the crushed cement blocks and the broken pieces […]
“We are homeless. All our furniture and electronics have been shattered to pieces by the rainstorm and if not for kind neighbours, we would all have been sleeping outside,” Veronica Hassan said in an emotion laden voice.
Gazing around the smashed zinc sheets, the splintered wood, the crushed cement blocks and the broken pieces of furniture and electronics, it would be unimaginable that all 23 people came out of the ruined house unscathed.
But Ben Hassan, the eldest son of the family said only five children sustained minor injuries and the bruises have since been dressed.
He said after a long season of extremely hot weather with scorching sun and dry land, when dark clouds began to form in the blue sky last Saturday evening, he was overwhelmed with joy. His younger ones too were happy, rollicking around, arms outstretched and singing a welcome song for the rain. But when the rain came, it actually came with a tempestuous wind that blew away their roof, soaked their bags of maize and cassava flour and destroyed every precious thing that they ever owned.
“The whole family was inside the house before the rain started. We were expecting light showers that will just cool the hot weather but then we heard the clouds rumble and blustery wind blew across the horizon, and before we understood what was happening, sand particles and all sorts of objects began hitting us. The walls shook and the roof rattled. We then realized we were in danger and our father led us outside. It was when we were outside that we watched helplessly as the storm blew away our only shelter and crushed part of the six-room building,” Hassan said.
When our correspondent visited the house, some family members huddled around the rubble wearing forlorn facades, while they awaited their dinner. Mrs. Hassan who suspended her cooking and spared a moment to express her grief, said she felt so sad that the rainstorm could not only damage their roof, it also damaged their furniture and electronics and foodstuff.
“At least we should have been spared our chairs, television and video set, picture frames and our food. We are now like beggars. We live off the goodwill of our neighbours,” she lamented.
Asked how such a large family manages to sleep now that their shelter has been blown away by the rainstorm, she answered: “Our neighbours squat us at night but when it is day time, we sit here and watch the destruction that nature has visited on us.”
Almost a week after the disaster, the Hassan family members are still hoping for help to come their way so that they can rebuild their house. Where and when it will come, they do not know.
Churches too were not spared the fury of the thunderstorm. Even the prayers of the pastor and some members of the congregation of Kingdom of God Gospel Church, could not calm the tempestuous wind that reduced the church to rubbles. James Sardauna is a member of the church and he was seen working in the rubbles of the knocked down church building. He said the rainstorm met the pastor and some church members praying and they had to run to safety to the pastor’s house.
Mr. Anthony Danu too lost his roof and other property in the rainstorm that affected a good number of houses in Mile Six. He told Sunday Trust that he was inside the house with his wife and five children when the turbulent wind started shaking the roof and he decided to take his family outside to safety.
“Immediately we came out and were heading to our neighbour’s house, we heard an exoplosive sound and when we turned to look, we saw the whole roof crash landing on the ground. I then heaved a big sigh of relief after imagining what would have happened if we had remained in the house,” he said.
It was another pathetic sight having the family sit under a mango tree with some sympathizers watching over their devastated house. The roof of the three-bedroom flat was blown off, the ceiling caved in and ceiling fans blown metres away from the building.
But it is the bags of rice, maize, millet and cassava flour that were soaked with rain and sand that pained Danu most. “I cannot believe my eyes that all our food stuff got soaked with water and sand. It is so painful especially that I have small children to feed. For our electronics, chairs and beds, I don’t care much. At least, when I woke up Sunday morning, I was able to search under the debris of the ruin and recover some things that were not seriously damaged,” he said.
Mr. Danu works with the Taraba State House of Assembly Service Commission but he has not received assistance from anybody. However, his elder brother is squatting him at Nukkai, another fringe settlement of Jalingo, about three kilometers from Mile six. He too is hoping that, at least, the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) will render assistance that can enable him put shelter over his family’s head once again.