How a catastrophic flash flood caught local residents off guard | DW News

How a catastrophic flash flood caught local residents off guard | DW News

at least 45 people are dead and dozens
more are missing after a flash flood in
Southwestern Kenya the Raging Water
Swept Away Homes and cars at a time when
large parts of the country have already
been inundated by weeks of heavy
rains people try to salvage what they
can as the search for survivors
continues in Kenya’s Rift
Valley the flash flood and ensuing
landslide
submerged roads and homes authorities
warn the death toll is likely to
rise the powerful flood uprooted many
trees as the water spilled Downstream
trapping vehicles and blocking major
roadways local residents are joining the
Kenya Red Cross Society with search and
rescue
efforts many people have died and we
have saved around a dozen people this
morning there are more victims but we
don’t know if they’re dead they’ve been
taken to
hospital the disaster struck in the dead
of night those recovering at the local
hospital recount harrowing stories about
the water carrying away loved ones into
the
night my youngest daughter was holding
on to my back while we were in the water
and she was begging me not to leave
her I reassured her and told her to hold
on to the nearby floating
debris unfortunately she’s gone now my
eldest daughter is in
hospital but the rest of the
children the disaster took place in the
town of May Mayu some 60 kilm Northwest
of the capital Nairobi police initially
blamed the flooding on a burst Dam it’s
now believed a debris clogged Gully may
have been the source of the
tragedy flash floods and heavy rains
have displaced thousands of Kenyans in
recent weeks the government says help is
on the way we are having a cabinet
meeting to be able to discuss on
additional measures that my government
is going to take to make sure that
citizens who are victims of uh climate
change who today are suffering floods
they are suffering mLs are looked
after an investigation has been launched
to determine the cause of this latest
flash
flood all right I’m joined Now by DW’s
Felix MinGa Felix you are at the
location what’s the situation what are
you seeing
there uh the situation is quite bad uh
we’re just standing um just next to one
of the victim’s houses this was
somebody’s house that was brought down
by the floods um just on this other side
my cameraman will be showing you uh this
was somebody’s window that uh actually
uh also got
brought lines were brought down water
pipes were also broken so the people in
the area no longer have electricity they
no longer have uh water around them and
uh this is just one of the hundreds of
houses and that’s how they look like on
the other side we’ve seen uh there’s a
car that uh was brought down by the
waters and it is still hanging on the
trees uh several cars that belong to
different owners are in different
homesteads uh places where they had
their Laboratories and everything
literally all of them brought down and
people here are devastated people are
saying they’ve never seen whatever
they’ve seen this is one of a kind yeah
I mean what what you’re showing is it’s
clear that they certainly had no time um
to prepare they didn’t see what was
about to happen um do we know what
authorities are are offering I mean are
the authorities themselves coping with
this so when uh the incident took place
the locals uh jumped in and started
rescuing their fellows uh later on
police and other servicemen men came and
started rescuing the people people were
rushed to hospitals uh the minister for
transport as well as the Governor from
this area and Kenya’s Deputy president
Al all visited the area and the victims
and they’ve promised support uh they
came with food stuffs but uh that is the
match that was done today but they’ve
said they will cater uh they will take
care of the hospital bills they’ll also
ensure that the that the victims of this
particular flooding are taken care of
but that is just what they said not
started taking place but the victims are
sheltered in different schools and
churches around the area and V we want
to let our viewers know that you know
right now is the rainy season in Kenya
and the rainy season has been a tough
one but are these rains are they
different from what we’ve seen in past
years going by what has happened in
Nairobi and other places within the
country it is very different uh we’re
seeing Rivers breaking BS uh so many
people died so many people have been
displaced from their homes and uh
schools were actually supposed to reopen
today in the whole country but uh they
were not able to open because roofs have
been shattered and walls have come down
this is one of a kind the weather man
says that the rains will continue for
the next uh about two weeks or 3 weeks
so people are being asked to stay safe
but everywhere we go people are saying
that they’ve never seen this kind of
Destruction ever in their lifetime twws
Felix MinGa with the ladies tonight
Felix as always thank you

At least 45 people are dead and dozens more missing after a dam burst in south-western Kenya. The flash flood swept away houses and cars and came as large parts of the region have already been inundated by weeks of heavy rains.

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