by Igho Oyoyo
Most residents of the popular Trademore Estate located on Airport Road in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, have been trapped in their houses and many of them have been displaced, as massive flood submerged the estate after a torrential rainfall that lasted for hours on Friday morning.
It was observed that almost all the houses in the estate were submerged, while vehicles and other structures were also seen submerged in the flood, with residents trapped in their houses without option of how to get out to safety as at the the time of this report.
At the area where Christ Embassy Church is located in the estate, some people, who were outside waiting for the rain to subside had to scamper to safety because of the surging flood, and some passers-by were seen trying to rescue some trapped residents while the waves of the flood continued to increase.
One of the affected residents, Mrs. Agnes, who was rescued from the flood before her house was submerged, lamented that they did not expect the flood in the estate this year, because they thought that the Federal Capital Territory Authority (FCTA) had mitigated the causes of the annual flood incident.
“Today’s flood is surprising, and we least expected it. Now, people, mostly children are still trapped in the houses. Thank God, I and my family were able to leave our house before the flood took over every here. But, what will people trapped inside the estate do now?
“This flood is too much, all our houses are covered with flood. The government should please come to our rescue before lives are lost. With this kind of flood, only God can save the residents of the estate, because the rains have just started,” she said.
It could be recalled that Trademore Estate had previously been ravaged by floods during rainy seasons, and the FCT Administration has been making endless promises to mitigate the flood, only for the disaster to continue to occur annually.
Also, the director general of the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Dr Abbas Idriss, had on Thursday, blamed flooding in some parts of the Territory on blocked manholes, cautioning against building on water channels or the dumping of refuse in uncovered manholes in the city.
He frowned at the habit of dumping refuse in uncovered manholes, saying that the activities of a few unpatriotic persons could have a negative impact on the larger society, calling for all hands to be on deck to ensure that no life is lost to flooding in this rainy season. (Leadership)