From Judex Okoro, Calabar
AN unprecedented flood have wreaked havoc at Alesie community in Ikom Local Government Area of Cross River State destroying over 70 houses and displacing about 200 persons.
The ravaging flood, which occurred following a seven-hour downpour last Sunday, did not only destroy valuable house-hold items worth several millions of naira, but also sacked the residents from their houses and rendered them homeless.
An eye-witness account told DALY SUN that on that fateful day between the hours of 2:00pm and 3:00pm, there was whirl-wind and lightening within the community and it was followed by heavy down pour.
The account said the down pour which lasted several hours, led to the overflowing of the riverine community and subsequently submerged some houses and pulled down over 40 houses in the process.
Most of the houses totally destroyed, according the account, was the ones located along the river bank.
Lamenting the level of destruction, one of the victims, Mrs Alice Ojong, told newsmen that the rain pooled down her house, thereby displacing her and her four children.
Ojong said, “I am a civil servant; this is the house I manage to build after 18 years in service. Now that the flooding has pooled it down, I don’t know where to start from.
“I am appealing to the government to help us in this period of our agony. I had to relocate to my mother’s compound for refuge’’, she said.