Kako, Region Seven
By Bibi Khatoon
Initial assessment of the village of Kako, Region Seven this morning confirmed damages to 14 homes and the Kako Primary School. This was confirmed by the Village Toshao, Casey Hastings.
Hastings noted that the storm which passed over the village at about 18:30hrs on Saturday, completely ripped out the roofs from 14 homes, affecting some 30 persons.
He told News Room that while the region has been seeing increased winds and rain during the current Hurricane season, last evening was the worst and lasted for 25 minutes.
“The villagers just put back, you know, in order to shelter from the rain and so. Last night and even up to this morning, they were able to temporary put back some roof,” the village leader related.
He said there were no injuries but “we had some narrow miss, zinc blew off and narrowly miss some people and some children last night.”
Also affected was the Kako Primary school and News Room also contacted Region Seven Chairman, Gordon Bradford who said efforts are being made to have the school fixed since the new school term begins tomorrow (Monday, September 04).
“Residents are frantically trying to put back on the roof and so on, in some kinda way to shelter them (students and teachers) from the sun and the rain,” he said.
Bradford added that students have started to travel to the Waramadong Secondary School and are fearful of being trapped on the river.
The village of Kako has approximately 770 residents.
It was previously reported that the village of Kamarang was also affected however, the Regional Chairman disclosed that there were no damages there.
On Friday, August 18, a storm also affected the Village of Jawalla in Upper Mazaruni where approximately 12 houses were destroyed and a 29-year-old woman, Marsha Jordan was killed saving her two children.
The Regional Chairman told News Room that the Region along with residents are working to assist that family.
He noted that while a home is being rebuilt, the focus is to construct something that could stand up to weather conditions.
He pointed out that “that will serve as a model for that community and other communities,” as consideration is being given to the frequent strong winds in the region.
Bradford said the constant heavy winds and thunderstorms in the upper Mazaruni is expected to continue throughout the Hurricane season.
An assessment is still ongoing to determine if other villages were affected.
