Flooded streets, grinding traffic jam, homes with roofs blown off, uprooted trees and stuck vehicles. Lagosians were struggling all yesterday to cope with the aftermath of an early morning downpour that drenched the city and its outskirts. The storm that accompanied the downpour pulled down telecommunication masts, electricity poles and trees, some of which fell across major roads to further compound the traffic jam.
The state government urged residents to remain calm. From Ikeja to Ikorodu; Marina to Apapa, Mainland and highbrow Ikoyi to Victoria Island as well as other parts of the city, motorists were stuck in the traffic that left wardens helpless. The rains that lasted for hours started around 9am. Commuters were stranded. Some cars and pedestrians were trapped in the floods.
Officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) were deployed to direct traffic. In Ikoyi, home of the rich and powerful, a tree fell on a car. Another was uprooted on the Alfred Rewane Road, forcing commuters to reroute their trips.
At Ogba, on the outskirts of the city, a mast was uprooted by the thunderstorm. A tree was uprooted on Toyin Street, Ikeja. At Oko Oba, Agege, a Lagos suburb, a motorist, Ekundayo Onilude, said two trees fell in the area around 2pm.
He said: “Two trees fell in Oko Oba in Agege due to the windstorm. One of the trees, blown off from the middle, fell on the road, near the Church Bus Stop; the other was from the root, it fell on a car around Olu Adebi Bus Stop.”
THE NATION
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