Page 9 - ARUBA TODAY

A9
WORLD NEWS Wednesday 16 august 2017

More than 300 dead, 600 missing in Sierra Leone mudslides

Societies. “I have never Contingency plans are be-
seen anything like it,” he ing put in place to try to
said. “A river of mud came stem the outbreak of dis-
out of nowhere and swal- eases such as cholera, De-
lowed entire communities, veaux told radio station FM
just wiped them away. We 98.1. The bodies that have
are racing against time, been recovered will begin
more flooding and the risk to be buried in the next 48
of disease to help these af- hours, said Sulaiman Park-
fected communities survive er, environmental protec-
and cope with their loss.” tion officer for the Freetown
Charles Mambu, a civil so- City Council.
ciety activist and resident Many of the poor areas
of one affected area, of Freetown are near sea
Mount Sugar Loaf, said the level and have poor drain-
magnitude of the destruc- age systems, which makes
tion indicated that hun- flooding worse during the
dreds more people could rainy season. The capital
be dead. also is plagued by unregu-
In one sign of hope, two lated construction of large
people were pulled alive residential houses in hilltop
from the debris Monday areas.
evening, Mambu said. Thousands of makeshift
Volunteers wait at the scene of heavy flooding and mudslides in Regent, just outside of Sierra The U.N. said it is providing settlements in and around
Leone’s capital Freetown, Tuesday, Aug. 15 , 2017. Survivors of deadly mudslides in Sierra Leone’s emergency response assis- the city were severely
capital are vividly describing the disaster as President Ernest Bai Koroma says the nation is in a tance. affected.q
“state of grief.”
(AP Photo/ Kabba Kargbo)

By CLARENCE MACAULAY Rescuers dug with their President Ernest Bai Koro-
Associated Press bare hands through the ma said Sierra Leone was in
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone thick, reddish mud to try a state of grief and mourn-
(AP) — Fatmata Kamara to find any survivors in ing, with many survivors still
had just stepped outside the debris of the homes. in shock. He called for sev-
her house before dawn Heavy equipment was lat- en days of mourning start-
Monday when she saw the er brought in, said govern- ing on Wednesday.
muddy hillside collapsing ment spokesman Cornelius Radio journalist Gibril Sesay
above her. The only thing Deveaux. The military also said he lost his entire family.
she could do was run. was deployed to help. “I am yet to grasp that I
She was one of the survi- Late Tuesday, Deveaux survived, and my family
vors, those who managed said that 297 bodies have is gone,” he said through
to escape the surging mud- been recovered so far, in- sobs, unable to continue.
slides and floodwaters in cluding 109 males, 83 fe- Ahmed Sesay, caretaker
and around Sierra Leone’s males and 105 children. of a two-story house near
capital that killed more Some bodies were swept the Guma Valley Dam east
than 300 people, many of into the sea off the coast of the capital, said he was
them trapped as they slept. of the West African nation sleeping around 6 a.m.
Another 600 people are and have begun washing when he felt a vibration.
missing, the Red Cross said back ashore. “It was like an earthquake. I
Tuesday, and the death toll The mortuary of the Con- ran out of my quarters to the
is expected to rise. naught Hospital in cen- gate of the compound,”
Thousands lost their homes tral Freetown was over- he said. “The ground shook
in the disaster, which was whelmed with the dead. and I had to stay outside
triggered by heavy rains. More than 300 bodies of the compound until day-
“I ran away from the house, men, women and children break.”
leaving behind my family,” were brought there, and An estimated 9,000 peo-
a grieving Kamara told The many were laid out on ple have been affected in
Associated Press. “I am the the floor. Deveaux said an some way by the disaster,
only one that has survived, exact death toll was un- said Abdul Nasir, program
as my house and dozens of known, and many of the coordinator for the Inter-
others were covered with bodies were horribly man- national Federation of Red
mud and boulders.” gled. Cross and Red Crescent