•Rains, windstorms bring chaos to Calabar
From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
Calabar, the serene and green capital of Cross River State, was recently battered by the unrelenting forces of nature, leaving a trail of destruction and despair. Nature’s fury swept through the city and brought with it, powerful winds and torrential rains.
It exposed the vulnerability of the city’s infrastructure as it struggles to come to terms with the aftermath. The two hour incident, which started at about 4:30pm, left various degrees of damage to rooftops, power infrastructure, vehicles and trees.
An official number of houses affected has not been ascertained but conservative estimate puts the figure at about 300 houses. Places and infrastructures like New Airport, Bedwell, Atimbo, University of Cross River, University of Calabar, State Housing, Bank building, former Leventis Stores building and many others were severely affected.
A major victim is the University of Cross River where the winds caused extensive damage to its properties. The acting Vice Chancellor of the University , Prof. Francisca Bassey, expressed concern over the gravity of damage of the institution’s structures.
Speaking through the university’s Director of Administration, Prof. Tom Ojikpong, the VC expressed her concern during an on-the-spot inspection of the affected buildings in Calabar campus .
“The fierce rain partially affected some offices, including the conference room in the administrative building housing the vice chancellor’s office. Other affected buildings are the university’s library, student affairs building, biological science building, environmental studies building, new science block A, JAMB/CBT center, former post graduate School building, mass communication old block and the new auditorium of the university,” she said.
In the area of power infrastructure, the incident plunged the whole metropolis into darkness as several power lines and other facilities were destroyed. Explaining the outage and the impact of the incident, the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution (PHED) said the storms caused significant damage to power infrastructure.
The company, addressing this concern in a public announcement, said: “The incident caused significant damage to PHED power facilities and, hence, the outage. We understand the extent of the disruption this has caused and assure the public that we are working tirelessly to restore power supply.”
Several trees within the Calabar metropolis were also destroyed, ripping off power lines, damaging cars and also causing gridlock in some roads.
The incident also attracted the response of the State House of Assembly which mandated the state government to trim or cut down old trees and plant new ones, particularly those under or taller than the power transmission lines and replace them with new ones.
The House took the decision sequel to a motion moved by the member representing Biase State Constituency, Hon Ogban Francis Onette, who decried the havoc caused by old trees in Calabar metropolis.
“Governor Donald Duke, over twenty years ago, planted most of the trees to add beauty and prevent erosion. Presently, most of the trees have over stayed their welcome or the purpose for which they were planted.
“Last year a tree fell on a power transmission line along Harbour Road and this brought total blackout in some areas for about two weeks.
“Two weeks ago, a tree fell along the UCTH Road, destroying people’s property. Last week, another tree fell on someone’s car along the highway destroying the car while another one fell, just by Federal Housing Junction, obstructing the flow of traffic,” Onettte stated.
Hon. Elvert Ayambem, speaker of the 10th Assembly, expressed sadness over the lives that have been lost in accidents involving falling trees during windstorms and reiterated the urgent need to trim or cut them off.
The state government on its part advised residents to take precautions by trimming falling down and outgrown trees in and around their vicinity.
The government, through the state commissioner for information, Erasmus Ekpang, mandated government agencies and the PHED to swiftly move into action to rectify all damages.
This is the second time this year that windstorm has wrecked the ancient city of Calabar. Earlier this year, windstorm destroyed several power facilities, trees and rooftops along Harbour Road. Affected houses include parts of the Calabar Incubation Centre and the Cross River State office of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC which lie in ruins to this moment.
It is not clear how residents should prepare against further onslaught by the forces of nature and last Wednesday evening’s incident has yet again highlighted the importance of preparedness and proactive measures to mitigate the impact of natural disasters.