Expect more heavy rains – Meteo Agency warns after weekend floods

The Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMET) has warned that there will be even more heavy rains, accompanied by strong winds in the coming month.

The weather warning comes on the back heavy rains on Saturday and Sunday that left many parts of the country, including Accra and its environs, flooded.

The Deputy Director of the GMET, Mrs Francisca Martey, who also doubles as the agency’s Head of Research and Applied Meteorology, gave the caution and called for drains to be de-silted.

She also urged the public to familiarise themselves with daily weather forecasts before leaving their homes.

“People living in areas that are flood prone must move to higher grounds or safer places in times of storms or strong winds,” Mrs Martey added.

Among the communities in the city that were swamped were areas around the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, Odawna, Graphic Road, Adabraka, Weija, SCC, Tuba Tollbooth, Kingstown, Kasoa, Adentan Commando and Nsakina.

The rains began about 1 a.m. on Saturday, lasted about five hours and returned in the wee hours of Sunday and went on for more than three hours. The plight of many people in the flooded communities was compounded mainly as a result of poor environmental practices, including the blockage of watercourses.

The Ghana Meteorological Agency said it was analysing why the rains were heavy this time when it had been the trend for the rains to be moderate in October.

The Deputy Director-General of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Abu Ramadan, told the Daily Graphic that floods had displaced hundreds of people living along the Odaw River in areas such as Achimota and Adabraka.

Because of that, he said, NADMO had moved in with relief items to support the affected people.

He said the organisation had relocated many of the affected people to neutral grounds and encouraged others to move in with their relatives and friends living elsewhere.