Blantyre, Malawi, Jan. 5 (MaraviPost) _ A ten-year-old girl was electrocuted while a 42-year-old man was crushed to death by a falling wall in the capital, Lilongwe, as violent rain storms destroyed roofs of several houses in the densely-populated area of Kauma over the weekend.
Hundreds of families have been left homeless.
Meanwhile, police in Blantyre are still looking at a body of an elderly woman who was swept away by rainwater alongside two others in the commercial capital,
Blantyre. The other bodies, that included that of an infant, have been recovered floating in the Shire River, Malawi largest and longest.
Ishmael Chipala, a teacher in Kauma township whose house also had its roof blown off, told Vice President Saulos Chilima who toured the damage that it was on Saturday night when heavy rains wrecked havoc.
“We were asleep when suddenly roofs were blown off by heavy storms and within minutes we were all soaked,” he said.
The girl who was electrocuted, according to Chipala, was trying to run to a safer shelter when she stepped on an exposed underground live electricity wire that was uprooted by rains. The man died when he was trying to fix his damaged house.
Several houses, including churches and a school, were destroyed by the rainstorm.
Chilima, the vice president, has meanwhile appealed for assistance from the international community.
“The Department of Disaster and Risk Management is assessing the damage but immediate needs will obviously be temporary shelter, food, cooking utensils and blankets,” he said.
Malawi, whose economy is largely agro-based, heavily depends on rain-fed agriculture. The rainy season normally begins in October or November but weather experts say effects of climate change have pushed the beginning of the rains to December and January.
The Department of Meteorology and Climate Change also says effects of El Nino in the Pacific will affect the current rain pattern.—maravipost