Adamawa Flood: Death Toll Rises To 43 - Guardian

“I AM lucky because most of my children were in my elder bother’s house in Yola for holiday; if not, only God knows what would have happened to me.” This is the lamentation of Mallam Abubakar Aliyu, a survivor of the September 2 flood disaster in Adamawa State, which death toll has risen to 43. Aliyu, at the Lamurde refugee camp of the Government Day Secondary School, Lamurde, revealed that out of his 14 children and three wives, he survived with only a wife and nine children. The number of deaths may rise from the deluge that spread to 11 local governments and many communities when water was released from the release of water from the Lagdo Dam on the Cameroun side of the River Benue. Many people are still missing or unaccounted while bodies are being recovered in trickles from the river. The Guardian investigation shows that in Lamurde and Numan local government councils, about nine more dead bodies were recovered by some fishermen, while six bodies wererecovered in River Benue. A statement from the flood disaster committee headed by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Kobis T. Ari, confirmed recovery of additional bodies from different parts of the state. However, in the midst of this harrowing experience, survivors camped at various locations in the state are struggling with bare existence: little or nothing to eat, lack of essential drugs while outbreak of epidemics is feared in several communities. At the displaced camp at Damare Primary School in Yola South localgovernment, a victim, Alhaji Abubarka Adamu, said that three women died in their area with their children on their back and that their corpses were recovered after two days. He lamented that the camp was experiencing shortage of potablewater, food, sleeping space, matsand many other things they needed to survive. Yet, it is not all gloom at the camps, as 16 women had put to bed within one week at the Government Day Secondary School in Lamurde, where over 700 displaced people are camped. A Red Cross official, Mrs. Janet Audu Tanko, said all the women that delivered babies in the campwere taken to the clinics for medical attention and safety of the babies. But she regretted lack of first aid drugs and that people, such as diabetic patients, who are on special diets, were suffering due to privation of recommended foods; a situation, she said, might complicate their health conditions if urgent action was not taken. Meanwhile, the state Commissioner for Health, Mrs. Lillian Stephen, feared an outbreak of epidemics like cholera in the affected flood areas. Mrs. Stephen, a lawyer, explained that the flood submerged pit toilets, and exhumed buried bodies, stressing that fertilizers applied on crops had been mixedwith stream or well water, which,she said, was the main source of drinking water of some of the affected areas. But to prevent the outbreak of epidemics, the commissioner said that mobile clinics were established in all the camps for the displaced persons with qualified medical personnel attached to the centres.