Kauma Rainstorm Death Toll Reaches 2

Kauma Rainstorm Dath Tll Reaches 2

The rainstorm that destroyed houses in Lilongwe has claimed another life at Kauma. Samson Chirwa a father of three children has died after falling from a roof top of friend’s house trying to repair it from damage caused by the storm.

In Lilongwe the recorded death due to the thunderstorm that happened in the night of Friday 2^nd January 2015 was of a 10 year old Sakira Banda who was electrocuted after stepping on a fallen ESCOM live-wire as she escaped when the roof to her house was being blown-off.

But as of Sunday morning people in the area were also mourning a man whose deaths was the result of the damage brought by the storm.

According to the deceased’s cousin Dickson Tchongwe, on Saturday morning Samson Chirwa left work unfinished of fixing damaged roof of one of his houses to help fix three damaged roof sheets of a friend’s house.

“He climbed to the roof of the house and had a hammer in his hand.” explained Chirwa’s cousin, “As he tried to repair on one roof sheets the hammer slipped from his hand and fell on the floor. He was trying to look down when he suddenly lost his foothold on some timbers and down he went, sliding, falling on a cement floor and smashed back of his head.”

Tchongwe said the back of deceased head started to swell rapidly and was rushed to Kamuzu Central Hospital where he died upon arrival. He said his remains were taken on Monday afternoon to his home village of T/A Maulawo in Mzimba district where the burial is expected to take place on Tuesday.

But Tchongwe said police were informed of the accident when the officials at Kamuzu Hospital insisted that family members should get police clearance first before taking remains of Chirwa from the hospital mortuary because the accident that lead to this death require police report.

The raging thunderstorm on Friday night damage and demolish more than 200 houses at Kauma leaving many people homeless. High winds knocked down the trees, cutting power in the process leaving electric wires and poles lying on the ground and some roofing sheets landed on electric poles and some in the trees.

Some victims said starting around 02:00 hours of Saturday when the storm blew off their home roofs they remained outside soaking in the rains till around morning hours when the rains stopped.

Same night the thunderstorm also hit some parts of the country. It also left 3 children from one family dead after being hit by lightning in Kasungu District and also in Karonga 6 people were injured.