by crossriverwatch admin
Few weeks after the Nigeria Meteorological Agency NIMET warned about excessive rainfall that may lead to flooding in parts of Cross River and some other States, the people of Calabar woke up this morning, Monday to meet flooded streets resulting from early morning torrential downpour.
The rains which commenced around 5:30am on Monday lasted for hours resulting in the flooding of several streets and causing problems of movement for both pedestrians and motorists.
When CrossRiverWatch visited Goldie, Target Street, Ebito and Main Avenue by Atamunu, people were seen using buckets to collect water from their apartments.
Speaking with CrossRiverWatch at Target Street, a resident, Mrs. Janet Iru said “This flood has been disturbing us, even if it is small rainfall, the whole place will be filled up and water will scatter our things and enter houses.
“We have been suffering too much here and government don’t want to do anything, we are tired of all this year in year out flooding. Sometimes after small rain, sleeping inside our houses at night becomes a problem, the next thing you see is heavy water destroying properties and documents; this is too much.
“Government should find a permanent solution to this; after all we are citizens and we pay our taxes this is too much for us I beg.”
On his part Mr. Elijah Akpan said “everybody is always praying for rain to fall to enable blessing and other good things come our way, we here always pray that rain should not fall because any small drop like this, we know the implications in this environment. Small rain will cause us sleepless nights for many days. Please help us to tell them that we voted for them”.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) had cautioned the South-Western part of the country and Cross River State against excessive rainfall which might lead to flooding.
The Director-General of NIMET, Dr. Anthony Anuforom, gave the warning in Abuja while giving an update on the review of the 2013 Seasonal Rainfall Predictions (SRP) and the effect of the rainfall pattern to Nigerians.
He said presently the soil moisture around Abeokuta, Lagos, Calabar, Ibadan, Ijebu Ode and Uyo had been saturated, adding that the moisture level in Lokoja was also building up gradually.
The NIMET boss said even though the areas might experience flooding due to the saturated soil level, government, agencies and everybody should take precaution.
“Strong indications emerged that the ground water over Cross River, Lagos and Ogun are already very wet and these areas will be affected by flood” he said.
The Director of the State Emergency Management Agency SEMA, Mr. Vincent Aquah had also warned residents of flood prone areas to vacate such locations.
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