One dead, 3,500 left homeless as storm batters Kamuli

Feb 25, 2017

The most hit villages included Kiige, Bugobi, Busongole, Butyama, Iganga, Bukabbeto, Bugaga, Kibuye, Kasolwe, Kyamatende, Busige

 

A Kiige Primary School classroom block lies in ruin after the storm. Photo by Tom Gwebayanga

One person has been reported dead, hundreds injured and over 600 homesteads ravaged by a storm that left over 3,500 residents without shelter in Kagumba and Balawoli Sub Counties in Kamuli district. 

Wayante Tibadiba, 56, a resident of Bugaga village in Kagumba Sub County died after she was crushed by the falling walls in the rainstorms that pounded Kamuli and Buyende districts for six hours on Friday night. 

Her husband, Samuel Lisata, 70, survived narrowly when he hid under the bed as the storm hit harder with hailstones and high speed winds, before the entire house collapsed. 

"The roof went off, before the walls also gave way and started falling on us. I ducked under the bed and that's how I survived" Lisata said.

"I have been left alone and at this age, I don't know how I shall prevail singularly" he added.

 

The storm was punctuated by lightning, thunder and high speed winds that left hundreds of huts and houses shattered.

The most hit villages included Kiige, Bugobi, Busongole, Butyama, Iganga, Bukabbeto, Bugaga, Kibuye, Kasolwe, Kyamatende, Busige among others.   

In Bugaga village, the worst hit was Denis Muwereza's family, whose entire house was blown to bits with the occupants suffering injuries. 

"I don't know how we survived. It was by God's grace," Muwereza said, adding that it rained for three hours non-stop.   

The roof of the five classroom block at Kiige Primary school, under the Universal Primary Education, which housed 750 pupils, was blown off, before the walls collapsed. 

Other schools that were damaged beyond repair include Bugobi Junior School (380 pupils) and Wiseman Nursery and Primary School Bugaga (230 pupils), in Kagumba Sub County. 

At Iganga Primary School, three teachers escaped with injuries when wind blew of their newly constructed quarters.   

By midday on Friday, many of those injured had been admitted in private and government health facilities. 

 

Joab Kyalo, the headmaster of Kiige Primary School appealed to local leaders including the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, and the MP for Bugabula North also the State Minister for Karamoja, Moses Kizige to inform the Ministry for Disaster Preparedness for immediate intervention. 

The Sub County chief for Kagumba, Simon Sentongo who the district was assigned to identify and document the victims said over 3,500 people from 650 homesteads have no shelter. 

Sentongo said over eighty carcasses of livestock including birds; goats and cows had been sighted. 

The LC3 chairman for Kagumba, Simon Ndahura blamed the destruction on cutting down all the trees to burn charcoal, minus planting new ones. 

"The challenge is that all the trees in the government owned 900 acres of land were cut down, so there are no wind breakers, thus today's woes" Ndahura said. 

The LC5 Vice chairman, Vincent Galisansana, also the district councillor for Balawoli Sub County said the district will budget for tree seedlings, to be distributed free to the affected localities. 

The Sub Counties suffered the same fate in 2014 when the storms claimed three lives, shattered 300 homesteads and left over 1,900 homeless.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});