Slide at Dark Street buries church, nine homes

By JAMES APA
GUMUNO
A CHURCH was among properties destroyed as landslides continued to create havoc for people living along Wara Kala in Western Highlands.
At 11am on Tuesday, a landslide at the Dark Street settlement destroyed a Destiny Fellowship church building and nine houses.
About 100 people are now affected. Other settlers vacated their houses and moved to safer ground.
The settlers were mostly from Chimbu, Enga and other parts of Western Highlands who had built their houses on the slope along the Kala River.
A power post fell on Tuesday night, cutting off electricity to many houses in the settlement.
Pastor Ben Apa of the Destiny Fellowship church said it took church members seven years to raise K30,000 to build the church in 2009.
He said the landslide had broken a wall of the church and a
tree had fallen on its roof.
Another pastor from the church located at the back of Tarangau Primary School said a bush material house near the church was carried away by a landslide on Sunday night.
Dark Street settlement community leader Albert Kia called on the authorities to help the settlers.