Asutifi electrocution: NADMO commiserates with family
The Director-General of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Nana Agyeman Prempeh, has presented GH¢20,000 on behalf of the government for preparations towards the burial of seven persons who were electrocuted at Amanfrom in the Asutifi South District in the Ahafo Region.
The seven, all with familial ties, died in the disaster apparently induced by a rainstorm accompanied by thunder and lightning.
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The disaster robbed one man, Mr Adom Agyeman, of his wife, Rebecca Kwarteng, 30, and children: Christian Oduro, 14; Simon Agyeman, 7; Emmanuel Agyeman, two-and-a-half years old; and sister, Bertha Brayie, 29.
It also claimed the lives of Janet Kwarteng, Mr Agyeman’s sister-in-law, and her five-month-old son, Agyenim Boateng.
The family is yet to fix the date for their burial.
Commiseration
The NADMO boss, who went to commiserate with the family, was accompanied by the Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr George Yaw Boakye.
Besides the deaths and injuries to five people, 57 houses — including the Christ Apostolic Church building and two poultry farms — either collapsed or had their roofs ripped off, while a total of 304 people were displaced.
The two poultry farms, according to officials of NADMO, had more than 500 day-old chicks washed away by the rainstorm, while the entire cost of the lost property is estimated at GH¢1 million.
The possible source of disaster, according to NADMO, was traced to the manual switch streetlight facility which fell off from the treated low tension pole situated about 250 metres to the main transformer and finally rested on the aluminium roofing sheets of the immediate facilities.
“You all know that we will soon enter the June-July period when we will likely have more rainstorms,” Nana Prempeh said, and called on landlords to periodically rehabilitate their houses so they could withstand potential disasters.
The Ahafo Regional Minister called on officials of the Volta River Authority (VRA) to ensure that the distance between electrical pylons and houses were wide enough so that in an event that electrical wires were disentangled they would not fall on roofs.
Mr Agyeman appealed to the VRA to install a system that would automatically turn off transformers in the event of such disasters.
Living in fear
Meanwhile, residents of the farming community say they have been living in fear after the disaster about a week ago.
“It was a black Friday for us. I have never witnessed such a rainstorm, and I pray that such an incident should never ever occur in our community,” Ms Sarah Kwakye, a mobile phone recharge card vendor at Amanfrom, told the Daily Graphic.
“I felt my intestines were gushing out when clouds gathered three days ago, but thank God there was no rainfall,” she added.
The concerns of Ms Kwakye, who lives next to the house where the unfortunate incident occurred, summed up the current mood in the community where normal daily life is now lived with trepidation.
“I cannot describe the severity of the rainstorm as I trembled when I saw the roofs of buildings flying in the air. I saw Bertha going to the house where the incident occurred during the storm, and couldn’t believe my ears that she was dead,” she stated in a trembling voice, her eyes filled with tears.