Eleven Injured during rainstorm at Akyem Asene
Eleven persons, including nine pupils, sustained various degrees of injury following the collapse of the local Methodist Primary and Kingdergarten school blocks at Akyem Asene near Oda last Wednesday as a result of a severe rainstorm.
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Some of the victims were trapped by the falling walls while the rest were hit by flying roofing sheets.
Four of the injured pupils are on admission at Jubilee Hospital, a private medical facility at Oda, while the rest were treated and discharged.
Briefing the Daily Graphic at Asene yesterday, Mr Emmanuel Kofi Mozu, the Manso Zonal Sports Committee Chairman said around 5p.m. last Wednesday, when the zonal basic schools sports special was in progress, it began to rain heavily.
Severe storm
He said a severe rainstorm which accompanied the rainfall, ripped off the roofs of the two buildings with some of the walls collapsing on some of the schoolchildren.
Mr Mozu said some of the pupils who tried to escape were also trapped by the flying roofing sheets.
He said the injured persons were rushed to the Oda Government and Jubilee hospitals where four of them were admitted and the remaining nine treated and discharged.
Upon hearing of the disaster, the Oda Municipal Director of Education, Mr Fred Kpooh, and the Asene Circuit Supervisor of Basic Schools, Mr George Owusu Agyemang, visited the victims at the two hospitals the same night.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Asene-Manso-Akroso, Mr George Aboagye, also visited the injured persons.
The Asenehene, Nana Karikari Apau (in smock), accompanied by the other chiefs to inspect some of the damaged school blocks
MP pays medical bills
The MP paid the medical bills of all the victims and also donated 10 packets of roofing sheets to some residents of Asene whose houses were destroyed by the storm to help in rehabilitating them.
The Oda District Police Commander, DSP Samuel Ntosoh, also led a team of police personnel to inspect the damaged buildings and also paid a visit to the pupils on admission at the hospital.
The Asenehene, Nana Karkari Apau I, the Gyasehene, Nana Amoa Daadom, and the Abakomahene, Nana Kodua Asiedu, also inspected the damaged buildings and visited the injured pupils to wish them speedy recovery.
They appealed to the Birim Central Municipal Assembly, the government and non-governmental organisations to come to the aid of the affected schoolchildren and help rehabilitate the school blocks and individual buildings that were destroyed by the storm.