A nine-month old baby, Godswill Echu Okon has been reported killed by rubble of a collapsed residential building in Adim, Biase Local Government Area of Cross River State as a result of flooding in the building.
The incident which occurred at the dead of the night took the parents of the child by surprise as there was a sudden collapse of their residential building as flood water overwhelmed substantial part of the village.
The elder brother, Jerry Echu Okon (3) survived the incident but with serious injuries and was hospitalized. The parents only escaped death by the whiskers as they were rescued by vigilant youths who frantically dug out the victims from the rubble which had covered them in their sleeping bed.
Narrating her ordeal in tears to our correspondent, the mother of the victim, Glory Echu Okon said that they had no premonition of the ravaging flood as the rains were not life threatening, though rising water was over 200 metres away from the village the evening before.
She said that at the dead of the night when she became conscious, not knowing that building had collapse except that she tried to move or shout but could not.
“It was as if I was in a grave. I could not hear anything and my limbs were all numb. I only realized that my lovely baby was dead after the rescue was carried out and we were pulled out from the rubbles. My God, why did I not die in place of my baby?” She exclaimed.
Assessing the disaster, the Director-General, Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) Mr. Vincent Aquah attributed the flooding to the global weather change and urged communities living along coast lines to be wary? of such disasters in future and to be at alert at all times.