Then came the alarms raised by those living in the hilltop areas, those who could run, racing down to warn people along the valley and lowlands to run. A torrent of water was on its way down the mountain. Four rivers in Kasese district – the Nyamwamba, Mubuku, Nyamughasana and Lhubiriha – had burst their banks.
“I realised a disaster was coming. It was a matter of life and death,” Masika, 34, tells the Guardian. “I ran back to the house to wake up my husband and children. I knocked and alerted our neighbours. The floods and stones are coming to kill us,” she says.
That night heavy rains in the area of western Uganda swept away homes, schools, submerged farms, cut off bridges and left several roads inaccessible, affecting 24,760 houses and an estimated 173,000 people, according to a disaster committee interim assessment report.
Comments
Post a Comment