COLLAPSED BUILDING KILLS 65-YEAR-OLD MAN (PAGE 35, JUNE 19, 2010)

From Samuel Duodu, Nikyinikyi near Dermaa.

A-65-year-old man met his untimely death at Nkyinikyi, a farming community near Dermaa in the Tano South District, when a two bedroom mud-house collasped  on him  during a torrential rain that hit the area on Monday.
The deceased, Opanin Kwadwo Asomah, was  said  to be asleep  in the building with his 15-months-old set of male twins and their mother as well as a seven- year- old boy when the building collasped killing the old man instantly.
According to some residents and an officer of the district office of the National Disaster Management Organisation ( NADMO), the rain started at 7p.m. and stopped at about 4a.m. the following day.
The body of the deceased has been deposited at the Bechem Government Hospital awaiting autopsy while the 15-months- old twins and their mother, as well as the seven- year- old boy who sustained severe injuries are responding to treatment at the same hospital.
However, one of the twins, who sustained a compound fracture and was in critical condition, has been transferred to the St. John of God Hospital at Duayaw-Nkwanta in the Tano North District for surgery and intensive care.
The injured are Christiana Konadu, 22, the mother of the twins,  15-months- old Atta Panin and Atta Kakra and seven-year-old  Kwabena Kumah.
Mr Christian Tetteh, the Tano South District Co-ordinator of NADMO, who briefed The Mirror said, the rain began from 7p.m. and at 3.45a.m. the following day, the building collasped.
According to the District NADMO Co-ordinator,  it was the only building in the community that collasped during the rain, but others  had their roofs ripped off.
He added that NADMO had earlier on advised the occupants of weak mud buildings in the area to vacate them but they failed to do so resulting in the disaster.
Mr Tetteh added that before the beginning of this year’s  rainy season, the District NADMO office went on a sensitisation exercise to impress on people living in such weak mud buildings in the district to vacate them and put up with other relatives in order to make way for their demolition to prevent such disasters from occurring  but they refused.
He, therefore, reiterated the appeal to those who were still living in those weak mud houses to vacate from them immediately to make way for its demolition to prevent such disasters from occuring.