Flooding destroys homes

HUNDREDS of homes, including properties at Kim and Kay Island village in Mt Hagen, were destroyed by flooding caused by Rongen River on Friday night following heavy rain.
This affected properties belonging to Kange Service Station, including staff dormitories, house and other valuable items.
Three men, who lived in the premises of the service station, escaped death when the house they were in was swept away by flood waters but they managed to wade and swim to safety by clutching branches and roots of plants.
The Rongon Bridge connecting more than 500 people at Kay Island also collapsed.
Kay Island ward councillor Samuel Roimb said his people had lost all their properties in the floods.
He said floods also brought human waste from the Wara Kum sewerage pond and left them on their food gardens.
He described it as the first of its kind to experience flood because the level of waters rose to more than one metre inside their house.
Roimb said the flood was a result of developments such as the building of new roads in the city where construction companies were diverting water into creeks.
He said flood hit their village at around 8pm when most were awake so no lives were lost.
“We ran to high grounds while all our properties were swept away by flood waters,” he said.
Roimb said food gardens were destroyed and domestic animals swept away.
He said his people lost cooking utensils, clothes and beddings in the floods.
Kange Service Station closed its coffee shop and bakery as flood waters threatened its building.