Apocalypse in Accra! 150 Dead so far in floods, inferno
Flooding, resulting from torrential rains, brought Accra to its knees last Wednesday night, with unimaginable loss of lives and destruction of properties.
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By press time yesterday, the death toll had hit a staggering 107.
Seventy-six of the victims were killed at a fuel station that exploded in the midst of the rains, while many others who suffered serious burns were taken to major hospitals in the city.
Many of the victims of the filling station inferno were among others who had sought shelter at the GOIL Fuel Station near the GCB Towers at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle to escape the flood waters spreading out from the overflowing Odaw River and uncovered drains.
Badly burnt bodies were scattered at what remained of the fuel station as fire and rescue crews battled fruitlessly to save lives.
Many of the deceased had sought shelter at the filling station, when an accompanying lightning was said to have struck a house causing an explosion.
Some of those burnt had their intestines gushing out, while others were headless, with their limbs completely burnt.
A woman with her child lying on her tummy was among those swept away by flood waters.
Experts say many of the burnt bodies can only be identified through DNA.
Some distraught residents of Accra whose family members did not return home last Wednesday night went round the hospitals in the city in a desperate attempt to locate them, dead or alive.
Recovery teams continued their search for bodies at various parts of the city all day yesterday.
Last Wednesday night’s incident is considered the worst catastrophe to have befallen the national capital since the May 9, 2001 Stadium Disaster when 126 soccer fans lost their lives in a stampede at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Nima
Musah Yahaya Jafaru reports that two women lost their lives in the same house at Nima, following flooding at Nima last Wednesday night.
While Auntie Ama’s body was found, Auntie Cecilia’s is believed to have been swept away by the floods.
The flood waters, which overflowed the Nima main drain, entered nearby houses and trapped their occupants.
Some brave youth used ropes to pull people and animals out of the ravaging waters.
The pressure of the water carried several vehicles away, including trucks and cars, into the Nima drain. Many of those vehicles had their windscreens and windows smashed.
Narrating her ordeal to the Daily Graphic, Mabel, a daughter of Auntie Cecilia’s, said she was in the room with her mother when the rain started.
She said the water carried them outside and that she had been lucky to have been pulled out of the water by some volunteers, who tried without success to rescue her mother..
Korle Bu
Staff of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital helped in tidying up the Accident Centre, the Burns Centre and the Children’s Block which were all left flooded, reports Erasmus Solomon.
Fourteen flood victims were rushed to the Accident Centre, with one of them passing away, while three were in critical condition.
According to Dr Kwesi Nsaful, a senior resident doctor at the Accident Centre, 10 of the victims had been brought in with injuries from the Goil Fuel Station inferno.
He said the remaining victims would be discharged, as their injuries were not critical.
37 Military Hospital
Emmanuel Quaye reports from the 37 Military Hospital that 65 corpses retrieved from the inferno at the Goil Filling Station were deposited at that hospital.
They are made up of 47 males and 18 females.
Others who suffered severe burns during the accident have been admitted at the Tamakloe Surgical Ward of the hospital.
According to Major Evelyn Asamoah, the Deputy Director of Public Relations in charge of Protocol, some families who visited the hospital to look for their relatives were sent in groups of five to the mortuary and the Tamakloe Ward to identify their relatives.
The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) presented 100 blankets,100 body bags and 200 cups to the hospital to cater for the victims.
The Director of Logistics at NADMO, Mr Theophilus Lamptey, said the organisation had already made similar donations to other hospitals handling victims of the flood disaster, with more donations on the way.
The Matron of the hospital, Colonel Mercy Yelbert, thanked NADMO for the gesture and said the donation had come at the right time.
New Times Corporation
The floods adversely affected the operations of the New Times Corporation, destroying documents and computers in the Editorial, Accounts and Marketing units of the corporation.
The managing director’s office and the company's boardroom were not spared .
When the Daily Graphic visited the corporation, staff were seen scooping water from their offices.
Makola
Rhodaline Oppong & Sherifah Adam report that the heavy downpour did not hinder traders at the Makola Market from their normal trading activities.
Most of the shops there were opened for business, except for those women who sell on the pavements.
Those who had shops found a way of protecting their wares from the rain by using polythene bags to cover them.
Nothing seemed to have affected business at Makola, compared to the way places such as the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and the Mallam Market had been affected by the floods..
Meanwhile, the situation boosted the sale of umbrellas and shower caps, with the prices of umbrellas shooting up from GH¢5 to GH¢10 for the smaller ones, while the bigger sizes cost GH¢25, instead of GH¢20.
Feast
K. K. Inkoom reports that somepeople at Weija capitalised on the flooding to catch fish.
While some residents lamented the loss of loved ones and property, others took advantage of the floods to harvest large quantities of mudfish that had been washed into the drains.
At the low lying areas around the Kasoa Old Barrier at New Weija, some residents stayed up till the early hours of yesterday and harvested buckets-full of large mudfish for consumption and for sale.
A resident, Madam Abla Setordji, who bought a bucket full of the fish, told the Daily Graphic that although she was happy to have bought the fish at a ‘good price’, there was the need for proper drains to be constructed to save the area from perennial flooding.
She said the intended opening of the spillways of the Weija Dam would be disastrous if proper drains were not constructed in the area.
The bizarre disaster, however, turned into a feast day for some people, as they prepared the carcasses of animals, especially goats, that died in the floods, reports Phoebe Pappoe.
As of 9 a.m. some suspected drug addicts around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle were seriously preparing dishes with mutton when the Daily Graphic chanced on them.
Ordeal
Meanwhile, the Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Ransford Tetteh, has recounted the ordeal he and some colleagues went through yesterday while they were on their way home after work.
He said after the paper had gone to bed, he set off for home at 9.30 p.m. by using the Graphic Road to join the Kojo Thompson Road to link the Circle-Achimota Road.
Mr Tetteh explained that just before the Circle Overhead, firefighters asked commuters not to use that route.
“We were left with no option but to turn back towards the Kanda Highway to link the Obasanjo Highway to the George Bush Highway, Achimota and to Dome.
“Unfortunately, we hit the first snag at the Accra High School area where a drain had overflowed its banks onto the road, slowing down traffic.
“As if that was not all, the real gridlock hit us at the Gold House Traffic Intersection towards Dworwulu, forcing us to make several merry-go-rounds at Pig Farm, Roman Ridge and the Airport Residential Area just to make a quick journey home,” he said.
According to Mr Tetteh, finally when he decided to use the route towards the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange through the Airport Residential Area to use the GIMPA Road to Dome, “it took us more than two hours in traffic”.
Many in the Daily Graphic production team got home late. Reporters such as Doreen Andoh and Emelia Ennin Abbey made it home at 4 a.m., while Fiifi Mensah, Debrah Fynn and Salome Donkor got home after 1 a.m.
Graphic designers who were on duty, such as Shirley Boye, Ebenezer Nyarko and Mrs Shirley Baiden, while proofreaders such as Agyei Asiedu and Stephen Bio got home after 2 a.m.
