Introduction
It
was an ordinary weekday evening till it began to rain late into the night.
Given the magnitude of the downpour, it was not long before reports started
coming in about flooding in parts of the capital.
The
intensity of the rain and the havoc it was wreaking in parts of the capital led
to distress calls from all over the capital, hardest hit areas included La,
Teshie Nungua area, Nima, Mamobi, Alajo etc. Basically every part of the
capital had a fair share of damage and loss.
Motorists
could barely navigate through town because major roads were flooded and access
routes to and from town were cut off completely. Everywhere was chocked. There
was water, water and water all over the place.
Distress
Calls, GOIL station explosion
Distress
calls began ‘flooding’ most newsrooms of radio stations who were covering the
floods LIVE on air, their main reporters being the very citizens either locked
up in the floods or held hostage in their homes deep into the night.
Officialdom
(especially NADMO and city authorities) spoke on radio with assurances that
everything humanly possible was being done to ensure safety and security of
persons and property.
Then
came the big one, fire in the flood. A GOIL fuel station at the Kwame Nkrumah
Circle in Accra was up in flames after an explosion. The Fire Service managed
to fight the fire which had ravaged households, the entire filling station and
adjoining structures.
The
other worrying bit of the explosion was that it claimed the lives of persons
who had huddled together in and around the station, waiting for the rains to
subside so that they could find their way home. The extent of the damage was
left for morning.
President
Visits Blast Site
Early
Thursday morning, President John Dramani Mahama; visited the scene of the fire
to assess the extent of the damage. He was distraught especially at the loss of
lives and charged that drastic measures be taken to forestall a recurrence of a
disaster of that magnitude.
In
his words; “Often when these measures are
drastic, you have a lot of sympathy and pressure not to take those measures but
I think that the time has come for us to remove houses out of water ways and
the public should understand that it is necessary to save everybody else,” he
further described the incident as “catastrophic and unprecedented.”
More
Rains: Meteo Dept. Warns
It
was not before long that the Meteorological Service Agency also stepped into
the fray as expected. Their message was that we had to expect more rains in the
coming days. A warning to the relevant authorities to take precaution.
Health
Minister Alex Segbefia Appeal
The
sector Minister, Alex Segbefia also visited some health facilities to ascertain
the extent of the human loss that had been recorded. It was at the 37 Military
Hospital that he addressed a press briefing where he reemphasized government’s
commitment to bring the situation under control.
He
further charged the general public to voluntarily donate blood to the hospitals
in order to help save the lives of victims who suffered in the fuel station
disaster. He also warned of a possible outbreak of Cholera and advised the
public to take necessary precaution.
Crunching
the casualty figures
The
casualty figures from the explosion and flood were pegged at 96 at first count.
A much clearer figure came up after aggregating figures received mostly by the
major hospitals, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), the 37 Military Hospital
and the Police Hospital.
The
first official figures by the minister totalled 65 persons in all; 18 women and
47 men. The Police hospital according to reports also had some 60 casualties
from the fire. It means then that there were about a 125 people lost to the
fuel station explosion. That number has since risen to 152 people.
Mixed
Bag
Nana
Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo, flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP)
visited the scene of the incident. In his media interaction he expressed
condolences to families and relations who might have lost loved ones to the
unfortunate situation and labelled the called the event “a dark day in the
history of Accra.”
Former
President Jerry Rawlings also added his voice to commiserations to families
that lost relations. In his view, the unchecked indiscipline of people building
in waterways was to be blamed for the unfortunate flooding of the capital and
other parts of the country. He further called for a probe into the issue.
The
Christian Council through its General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Opuni Frimpong backed
the voluntary blood donation appeal earlier made by the Health Minister for
people to go and donate blood to the blood banks in these hard times.
He
further tasked churches to play their role of giving emotional support and
attention to members who may have suffered loss of their relations and
properties to the flood and explosion.
The
medical and security agencies cannot also be left out in all of this, from
NADMO to the Metropolitan Authorities, the Military, the Police, the Fire
Service and other allied institutions have played a crucial role in alleviating
the suffering of citizens.
The
media, radio and television outlets have become more or less the emergency call
centers and most of them have been of very great help to stranded people across
the country. An emergency call center has been set up and a national crisis and
emergency meeting was convened by the President, details of which should be
available soon.
The
commiseration of Togolese president and the Ivorian foreign Minister who came
in person to join the President visit some of the victims is as neighbourly as
it is exemplary even though none wishes another such misfortune as Ghana
witnessed.
The
wider consolatory messages from home and abroad coupled with corporate
initiatives to assuage the pain and distress of victims and families of the
twin disasters is also heart warming as much as it is relieving.
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