Big flooding in Ghana's capital

Some 100,000 without homes, emergency services

Sustained torrential rain caused widespread flooding in Ghana's capital, Accra, Wednesday, leaving at least two dead and an estimated 100,000 people homeless, emergency officials said.

ONE OF the casualties was a 3-month-old baby, believed to have been swept away by floodwater.

"It's a really terrible situation and we are badly equipped for this sort of emergency," Akwasi Owusu-Akyiah, director of operations at the National Disaster Management Organization, told Reuters.

"We have only three vehicles and we're doing our best. This is the worst flooding in many years," he added.

United Nations agencies had provided another four vehicles to help rescue operations, he said. The Ghanaian Navy sent out inflatable boats to rescue people from rooftops and trees.

Rivers in the center of Accra had broken their banks and roads had been washed away or were completely under water. Owusu-Akyiah said his organization was preparing a relief effort for Thursday to help people whose homes had either been washed away or were flooded.