Homes swept away leaving 500 homeless

More than 500 people of Gabensis village in Morobe are homeless after flood swept away half of the entire village on Sunday morning.
Community leader Ben Johnson said 500 people were homeless and seeking refuge in the classrooms of village’s primary school.
Morobe disaster and emergency coordinator Charlie Masange confirmed the disaster but said his office only has a report on flooding onJuly when 12 houses were washed away.
Masange said they did not confirm the type of houses and disaster officers were monitoring the situation.
“We will give them a week to do assessments and will assist those ones that were really affected and need food supplies,” said Masange.
Johnson said 10 trade stores with thousands of kina worth of goods, a chicken shed with 600 chickens, food gardens, domestic animals and other properties were taken away by the flooded Gabensis River.
He said the river also flooded into a second chicken shed as well.
The sheds were built by villagers who have contracts with Niugini Table Birds to supply chickens. Johnson said sources of clean water for cooking and drinking were destroyed.
“We are now shifting our cargoes that we managed to save to safer grounds while the affected villagers are taking refuge in classrooms of our primary school.
“We don’t know where to go or what to do now.”