Firefighters have been deployed to help local search parties straggle through large gutters to look for two children who went missing, and rescue many others displaced in a heavy rain and stormy weather that ravaged parts of Tamale, the Northern regional capital on Tuesday.
The regional spokesman for the Fire Service, Opoku Aikins, confirming the operation to Starr News said the team was dispatched after receiving numerous calls from residents of different locations seeking rescue assistance.
The rain which started early Tuesday morning poured heavily for nearly five hour period drenched many parts of the metropolis leaving two school children missing and rendered dozens homeless.
The children according to Starr News sources were returning from school and got knocked into a running water and dragged into a drown bridge at Tishegu and Kukuo, all in the city.
Efforts by the search party including officials of the fire department in the region could not find them but the search was still ongoing.
A research assistant for the Tamale Metro, Mohammed Sauwi, who was leading a data collection exercise at the Tishegu community and witnessed the incident told Starr News the search team stood and watched helplessly while the boy, aged 12, washed away in the gutter.
The torrential rain also caused swallow dams to overrun into the communities and washed away some buildings causing water to flow into structures.
Many roads, including the one running from Business High School to the Kunyevila and its surrounding communities, were inaccessible and many were left stranded.
Communities affected are Kunyevila, Dungu, Asawaba, Shishagu, Nahada and Dungu Kukuo, Tishegu, Kukuo, Russian bungalows, Gumani where many buildings are swamped by floodwaters causing massive damage to properties
The same areas faced the possibility of massive disaster as the rain season sets in, authorities have said.
At Asawaba, Dungu and dozen of areas, houses are submerged and many people trapped and several properties swept away by the winding passage of the waters.
School children in many of the hard hit areas including Ambariyya Islamic School in Sakasaka were taken to safety after teachers broadcasted an emergency message calling on parents to come for their wards.
An elderly woman was rescued on the Tamale -Bolga expressway. Several offices including some departments at the Tamale Teaching Hospital were also overrun.
“It’s terrible, and how are people getting to their homes? When I was coming around 4 to 5, I had to pass through Dungu-; I have to go back and I think that was the time the old woman got drown, and are we waiting to lose lives before we can work on this road?”, a stranded resident of Kunyevila lamented
Some resident, however, refused evacuation and rescue efforts by firemen who waded through thigh deep water to their homes where water rose to dangerous levels.
Currently, people are living in their submerged homes whiles others have moved to stay with friends and families.
