What a Sunday

Good evening dear Readlanders, happy Sunday and a new month to us all. This month started perfectly with a weekend, making Monday an opportunity for me to start working for my goals immediately. That's something good for me.

Today has been good until my friend from another state called me to tell me about their situations over there. They live close to the river and right now, they are homeless. Not just them alone but the entire town is flooded and they all left their house for safety. This time of the year is always associated with news like this around the world. Here in my country Nigeria, it has been an annual occurrence since I was a kid. I have been hearing about flooding in different parts of my country and that was how I know practically what flooding is and how bad it can be. She took pictures of where they live and I saw how everywhere was flooded. I asked her if she could come to the east and stay with me till the flood stops but she said there is a hike in transportation and she cannot afford that.

It seems that some people are taking advantage of the situation to make money in their business. The price of taking a taxi from their place to the township doubled because of the flood. I asked her about how she feeds and the cost of living in general and she said that every single thing in that area doubled in Price. Even the price of tap water, can and sachet water were increased by business owners.

It is really a difficult time for them, especially now that the government doesn't care about the flood and its victims. I couldn't help but send her some money to help herself which she thanked me for that. The last time I spoke with her, she was telling me about some people using the opportunity to steal from others. I was surprised to know that amidst the flood, some people still go through the water to search peoples houses to take some valuables. No place is secure for them and life is hard over there now.

Prices of food hiked, people's property was destroyed by floods, people's farms were destroyed, even some schools and places of worship. From one of the pictures, I saw a house entirely flooded to the roof. You can only see the rooftop from the outside. As all these are happening, there's still a heavy rainfall.

I used to think that the rain is causing more damage in my city but I have seen the worst today. Last Tuesday was a catastrophic rainfall that almost caused the life of a pregnant woman in my city. She almost got drowned by the flood but was lucky to be saved. These days, both day and night is a heavy rainfall. People around here are complaining but I think that is nothing compared to what is happening at my friends side. Thank God she's alive.

As all these are happening, I asked myself what happens to their livestock and foodstuffs in the house. Just past Tuesday during the heavy downpour, one woman's poultry got flooded accidentally and she lost more than four-hundred chickens (old-layers). Luckily for her, it happened at noon and before evening, she sold off all the drowned layers. People were trooping to buy from her the layers at a cheaper price. She has to sell it off to make some little gain from her loss. A very sad moment for her. She never knew that flood was so powerful to push down her fence and mess her compound.

Still this evening, I saw a headline that flood claimed more than thirty lives today. This is the most shocking news I have ever heard of flooding. It damages houses and properties but now it is claiming lives. Something has to be done to at least save lives in times like this. This is sad news for me this Sunday and I pray all these things stop soon.

Thank you for your time.

@Gianna-B, 2022

Lead image taken from pixabay