31 March 2016

Hailstorm razes houses, crops


In Summary



Affected areas. The rainstorm swept through the villages of Kakoli, Iki-Iki, Petete, Kadenghe, and Kaitagole







Heavy unseasonal rain accompanied by gusty winds and hailstorm on Wednesday tore off roofs and brought down heavy trees, leaving dozens of residents of Iki-Iki Sub-county in Budaka District homeless.






The heavy rainstorm swept through the villages of Kakoli, Iki-Iki, Petete, Kadenghe, and Kaitagole, leaving several houses, including schools and churches de-roofed.






Other effects
Mr Zedekiya Modinghi, the Iki-Iki LC3 chairperson, said five villages of about 4,000 people are likely to face famine because from the previous season, farmers harvested little and now coupled with this disaster, the situation is likely to worsen. He explained that the rainstorm pounded their gardens for nearly three hours, leaving almost all crops on the ground.






One of the affected residents, Mr Alex Tabiluka, told Daily Monitor that the storm de-roofed his house, destroyed acres of crops and that his family is set to face food shortage.
“The challenge at the moment is where to resettle the affected families as the Sub-county leaders compile data to be forwarded to the district,” Mr Modinghi said.


Budaka District frequently experiences heavy storms due to massive tree-cutting leaving the district vulnerable to such disasters.
But according to the district chairperson, Mr Arthur Mboizi, the district is putting in place an ordinance to counter such threats of environmental concerns.






Early this year, more than 30 famers were left crying after a similar storm swept across Nyanza village in Kamonkoli Sub-county and destroyed unspecified number of rice fields and houses.
President Museveni during the commissioning of Uganda Clays factory at Kamonkoli, about 6km from Mbale Town last year, expressed worry over the increasing cutting of trees in the area.






A team of technical staff from the district are expected to visit the sub-county to carry-out an assessment for possible assistance.






Affected schools
Some of the schools that were destroyed, according to Mr Zedekiya Modinghi, the Iki-Iki LC3 chairperson, include Iki-Iki High School, Top care and Iki-Iki Integrated primary schools.






0 comments:

Post a Comment

Theme Support

Popular Posts

Recent Posts

Unordered List

Text Widget

Blog Archive

Powered by Blogger.