Deadly mudslide in Sierra Leone kills hundreds
By
Eddie Haywood
17 August 2017
After a torrent of heavy rains early Monday morning caused massive flooding, a devastating mudslide completely buried an entire neighborhood and hundreds of people under tons of debris near the capital city Freetown.
Set off by torrential rains in the early morning hours on Monday, the mudslide buried a mass of shanty dwellings and has claimed scores of victims, with the confirmed death toll reaching 304 on Wednesday, with rescue efforts continuing. According to rescuers at the site, several hundreds more remain unaccounted for and are feared dead. Scores more are severely injured. It is one of Africa’s deadliest natural disasters in recent memory.
The mudslide’s brutal force of momentum gathered high on the slopes of Mount Sugar Loaf after the abnormally heavy rains which culminated into a snowball effect, propelling tons of enormous stones, boulders, mud, and debris which buried everything in its wake. The scale of the social catastrophe is only beginning to be understood.
Abubakarr Bah, a colonel with the Sierra Leone army leading the rescue effort, told the media Wednesday that the city morgue at Connaught Hospital was overwhelmed by the significant numbers of dead. He reported that so far the dead included 105 men, 83 women, and 109 children. It is estimated that as many as 600 are unaccounted for, and that this figure is likely to be an underestimate.
The scenes of the floodwaters and the mudslide’s effects appearing in media reports are apocalyptic. The capital, Freetown, received more than double the amount of rain which typically falls between July 1 and August 13.
The heavy rains made literal rivers of streets in the Regent District and the towns beyond, although the population…