-Victims urge Gov’t to prepare for a possible repeat
BY: SHALLON S. GONLOR
NIMBA COUNTY — September started with a typhoon that ripped through villages, towns, and cities across Liberia in counties and territories, uprooting trees and flooding. “Since 1977, it was the first to see extreme weather events to hit Nimba County, the most catastrophic being the floods to destroy homes and displaced about hundreds of people in the county”, older folks said.
Recorded 2024 September, unprecedented and devastating” flooding in Nimba County triggered widespread displacement, with hundreds of people forced from their homes, villages, and towns in Nimba County. The heavy rainfall’s devastating impacts also included washing away a large number of businesses, leading crocodiles, snakes, and some bad animals to enter homes, leaving residents stranded, and rising hunger as children struggled to cope with the devastation.
Experienced in rural communities in Nimba County, school-children going to school early in the morning were challenged to cross the floodwaters to get to their school campuses — the situation also worsens in making ends meet in itself tough for women and children. The torrential rains, especially in Nimba County this year, unleashed catastrophic flooding and mudslides, severely damaging roads, bridges, and dams, hampering easy access to local communities.
In an alert, climate experts in the county have warned that these types of extreme weather events, affecting towns, villages, and cities all over the country, may become increasingly common as the climate crisis accelerates, putting pressure on governments to prepare. “Global warming changes the properties of precipitation in terms of frequency, intensity, and duration,” said some experts.
However, they added that this summer’s devastation was due to a combination of different factors, including natural climate fluctuations. The huge toll of the floods also highlights the urgent need for governments to prepare for this new reality and the ways conflict-ridden and poor country Liberia sits on the front lines of climate disasters.
Government “have to be ready,” said climate experts. “They have to start thinking about it, experiencing these kinds of extreme events in the county.”
Flood Victims Urged Government
Speaking on a local radio Monday, 7 October 2024, citizens, including flood victims, said several of their properties; farmland, crops, and houses were destroyed and now homeless as a result of unprecedented flooding in September 2024, urging the government through the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) for rescue.
The flood victims in Nimba County are calling on NDMA Executive Director Ansu Dorleh to rally government and humanitarian organizations for financial support in saving their lives and restoring their hope of getting back another home.
The flood victims further expressed their serious disenchantment with the national government through its disaster management agency for their alleged refusal to reach out to them in Nimba County during their challenging period of catastrophic displacement.
According to them, during their war against the catastrophic flood, the national disaster team did and did not show concern to buttress their rescue efforts, thus rallying government and humanitarian support in kinds and building materials to re-establish their homes.
The flood victims, mostly women and children, are struggling to seek refuge in some unconducive environments and mix-shift structures for temporary shelter. The flood’s destructive impact was widespread, claiming houses, shops, and other properties, leaving many residents with nothing but clothes on them.
Businesses have been ruined, and entire neighborhoods have been devastated as floodwaters continue to rise. Thousands of families have been forced to evacuate their homes as rising waters swept through streets, damaging properties, businesses, and farmland.
Devastating floodwaters had over the years killed hundreds of people due to drowning at homes and in streams in the County. So far, no death has been reported as a result of the flood this year. Heavy flooding after rain downpours overwhelmed drainage systems and caused waters to overflow, taking many innocent citizens’ lives away.
However, the heavy flooding this year highlights the urgent need for better flood management systems to prevent such widespread damage in the future. The floods also serve as a stark reminder of the urgent need for improved drainage to protect vulnerable communities from recurring natural disasters.
Amid the worst rains and flooding in Nimba County this year, the affected population who lost homes and were displaced are meanwhile urging the government and partners to provide them with lifesaving assistance due to the deadly floods and now face a heightened risk of waterborne disease. As these individuals face the daunting task of rebuilding, their vulnerability only deepens.
This year, the torrential rains in Nimba County have been more severe than in the previous two years, according to the Environmental Protection Agency in the county. While this has provided much-needed relief to farmers, it has also led to unprecedented devastation in towns and villages in the county.
