Menongue – Over 700 people, in a total of 160 families, were affected by the rains of the last 24 hours in Menongue, capital of Cuando Cubango province, and 100 people have already been relocated by the Municipal Commission for Civil Protection.
The 100 people were provisionally relocated to the “Cambinda Calilo” Elderly Assistance Center, while the coordination of the Menongue Municipal Civil Protection Commission creates conditions for definitive relocation.
Speaking to the press, the spokesman for the Civil Protection and Fire Service in Cuando Cubango, Albano Cutarica, said that provisional data indicate that the damage from the last rains, in the city of Menongue and peripheral neighborhoods, is estimated at more than 100 million kwanzas.
According to the spokesman, the damage is due to the destruction of food, industrial goods, kitchen utensils, among others, in flooded houses, due to heavy rain accompanied by strong winds.
The rain began to fall around 2 pm on Monday and, so far, it continues, and from this period until dawn on Tuesday it was more intense, having caused the overflow of the Lahuca River.
He explained that the damage tends to rise, due to several requests from the fire services of the affected people, so the staff of the Ministry of the Interior will continue to carry out the total survey, to obtain the full balance of the consequences of the rainfall in Menongue.
He said that the overflow of the Lahuca River also caused flooding to eight residences, the eruption of 10 ravines in the Castilho neighborhood, which threaten to destroy nearby houses, but that the coordination of Civil Protection of Menongue ensured a timely intervention.
Albano Cutarica also made it known that more than 15 Transformer Stations (PT) of the National Electricity Distribution Company (ENDE) fell, as a result of strong winds, in the municipalities of Menongue, Calai and Mavinga.
Since the beginning of January, firefighters have recorded three deaths from lightning strikes, two in the municipality of Rivungo and one in Menongue, as well as eight injured. ALK/FF/PLB/DOJ
