Homes, business places flooded after early morning rain in Rivers

An early morning heavy downpour in Rivers State has wreaked havoc on homes and businesses as attendant flood sacked many homes and disrupted businesses across many parts of the state, especially Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor local government areas.

The rain which started around 6 am as people were getting ready for the day forced many to stay back home.

After the rain subsided around 10 am, many homes and business places were flooded in several parts of Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor.

The popular supermarket Spar, located just beside the Rivers Government House along Azikiwe street was overtaken by flood which also took over a large portion of the street.

The flood disrupted business activities at the supermarket chain as the water went beyond the vast parking lot into shops on the ground floor forcing owners and operators of shops on the ground floor to seek refuge at the upper floors of the shopping complex.

The entire stretch of Odili Road on the Port Harcourt metropolis hitherto known for flooding was rendered unpassable with flood water swallowing few vehicles on the road at the time of the downpour.

Also, several areas of Obio/Akpor local government like Ada George and Mgboba were flooded as well.

A victim of the incident who resides in Ada George area, Grace, said that despite the fact that some of the flats in her compound were sitting on reasonably high DPC, the flood invaded all the nine flats in her compound and caused different degrees of damages to the homes.

She said: “I’m in a very bad state of mind now as the flood has rendered us homeless. We had a warning experience very early in the month but we thought it was all over. This morning rain is the heaviest I have witnessed for a very long time.”

She said that the flood was so heavy that it broke down fences surrounding them and forced itself into their compound, adding that the flood was almost reaching the window level.

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