Agaju Madugba, Katsina
After several months of intense heat, Katsina metropolis witnessed its first rain in the year on Thursday evening, accompanied by rainstorm which claimed six lives with a number of other residents currently hospitalised.
Apart from the dead, the storm also destroyed buildings with several rooftops blown off, perimeter fence of houses crashed even as public electric power supply has been cut off as electric poles and power cables were damaged in the course of the rainstorm which lasted for an hour.
Confirming the report, the Executive Secretary of the Katsina State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Dr. Aminu Waziri, listed areas worst hit as, Kukah Gashua, Modoji, Shinkafi and Ambassador, while the Army Barracks on Jibia road and the new Air Force Base in the Makera area also had their fair dose of the damage.
Waziri said that four deaths were recorded at Kukah Gashua, with the two others at Modoji and Shinkafi areas of the town.
Some of the buildings affected in the incident included, the new offices of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) near the House of Assembly complex, and the Shinkafi Quranic Model Primary School, among several others.
According to Waziri, “my team are still out there assessing the situation. So, I cannot quantify the damage in terms of Naira and Kobo now.
“But if what I saw at the military barracks and the Airforce barracks alone were to be assessed, from my on professional point of view, I would put the damage at the military barrack at N50 million and that of Airforce barrack at N30 million.”
