Landslide killed three

Yensi(E/R), Oct. 7, GNA - Three hours of rain on Monday at the Akuapem North District led to a landslide, which killed two women and a child at Yensi , a village off the Koforidua to Adukrom road. The dead were Doris Yaa Asantewaa, 55, Yaa Oforiwaa, believed to be in her 50s and Kwesi Mantey, a three year old grandson of Asantewaa. Giving an eye witness account of the incident, Mr Kofi Mantey, 55, husband of Asantewaa said he was in their room when he heard a shout that the water was gashing out so everybody should get out of their rooms into their compounds.

He said when he came out of their room, he saw a large volume of flood water gashing out from the hillside towards their house and so he rushed to the kitchen, which was in front of the bed room and shouted out to his wife and the friend to come out before the water got to them. Mr Mantey said he tried to get hold of his grandchild to pull him out of the kitchen but the floods caught up with them at the kitchen and his hand went off the child and he had to struggle to find his way through the water and the rubble to safety.

When he got out of the flood water and turned to look back, the kitchen had collapsed and the flood had washed down large volume of mud and boulders about 150 centimeters high to cover the whole compound of their house.

He said the late Oforiwa came to check her name in the voter's register at the polling station behind their house and called to say hello and was trapped by the rains.

Meanwhile a rescue team of Fire Service personnel, policemen from both Koforidua and Akropong Police Divisional Headquarters and the members of the local community on Tuesday afternoon managed to retrieve the dead bodies from the mud.

The bodies have been deposited at the mortuary of the Teeth Quarshie Memorial Hospital at Mampong-Akuapem for autopsy. A second landslide occurred at Asenema, a marketing centre on the Koforidua -Adukrom highway where the boulders and sand washed down by the floods temporarily blocked the highway. The Akuapem North District Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Mr Seth Okyere led some of his staff to mobilize the youth around Aseneman and the surrounding villages to clear the boulders, to open up the road.

Mr Okyere said the 14 members of the compound house where the death occurred after the landslide had been evacuated and were living with relations in the village. He said his organization was accessing the situation to know the package that was needed to be given to support the affected people for them to restart their lives again.

Information gathered by the Ghana News Agency from residents of Yensi indicated that this is the third landslide that had been experienced in the village within the last 40 years, but in all cases nobody died or property was lost except the current one.