NIMET's forecast of extreme rainfall this year as many states in the
country has already recorded volumes of rain never before experienced.
In Osogbo, the Osun State capital yesterday, tragedy struck as many
houses lost their roofs to the gusting windthat accompanied the
two-hour rain, with property worth millions said to be destroyed.
A resident of Oke Ayepe area of Osogbo who spoke to INFORMATION
NIGERIA on phone said the state has not witnessed the kind of
destruction caused by the rainstorm in a long time.
"The government did its best by clearing flood channels, but you know
nobody can control the wind. It was so devastating. A lot of houses
were destroyed."
The source who pleaded anonymity said worse than the destruction of
property the rain brought was the life of one of his colleagues that
"the rain took away".
Stuttering as he spoke, the source who is a freelance plumber told
INFORMATION NIGERIA that some of his colleagues came to his area
towork, but one of them died while it rained.
"We cannot question God," hesaid. "The rain took my colleague away.
"They finished the work in myarea and were just going home when the
rain started. They hid somewhere for the rain to reduce, but as they
waited for the long rain, thunder struck my colleague and he died. It
was unbelievable."
The source said what made hiscolleague's death more painful was that
he could have been at home when it rained.
"Yesterday was his birthday. He clocked 23. I heard his friends
advised him to rest at home on his birthday, but he insisted on going
to work. I heard he asked them who willbe feeding him after his
birthday, and that was how they left him to go.
The 23-year-old victim was said to have been buried according to Islamic rites.
The Deputy Regional Manager,Central Forecast Office, Nigerian
Meteorological Agency, Abuja, Mr. Cyprian Okoloye, had in May urged
Nigerians to monitor weather forecast in order to save themselves from
tragedy.
Okoloye said, "We constantly upload a two-day forecast on NIMET's
website. This is to help people know when there will be heavy
rainfall, so as not to be caught unawares.
This information, as simple as it may sound, is very important. It's
a prediction of how the weather will be for the day, which will also
help people monitor their movement.
For example, if one plans to visit a flood-prone area and the weather
forecasts shows that there willbe heavy rain, one will be able to
implement all necessary measures to protect oneself.
"Nigerians should imbibe the habit of always checking the forecast. It
doesn't take anything from them.
This information is available at one's disposal. More so, it has been
predicted that there will be heavy rainfall up to the third week of
July."
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