Downpour destroys Pallisa District offices

Heavy rains characterized by hailstorm over the weekend left several offices in ruins in the Eastern Uganda district of Pallisa.  

Storm eyewitness Moses Onyaiti told this publication that he “saw flying iron sheets being carried by the gusty winds.”

According to the Pallisa Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Magidu Dhikusoka, heavy rains with winds began at around 3.30pm and nearly lasted an hour, leaving a trail of destruction to the offices.

“The magnitude of destruction caused by the storm is extreme in that the office of the district chairperson [LC5], finance block and the entire Action Aid offices were badly damaged to the extent that the iron sheets were blown several metres away during this unfortunate incident,” Mr Dhikusoka told Monitor.

By Monday morning, no causalities had been reported.

But Mr Dhikusoka said “the situation will be rectified as soon as possible to normalize operations of the affected offices.”  

“The destruction was mainly on the roofing. The walls remained intact and await the district engineer to quantify the destruction so that replacement is done,” he explained.

However, Mr Dhikusoka hinted on possibility of a temporary relocation of some of the offices in the eventuality of unavailability of funds for swift repairs.   

“The district, through the accounting officer [CAO], has to source funds immediately to enable these renovations because the magnitude of destruction requires a good amount of money,” he noted.

Meantime, authorities say key documents and valuable property such as computers and chairs were not completely destroyed.

Pallisa is among the districts in eastern Uganda that are frequently devastated by downpour and strong winds due to massive deforestation.  

Local leaders have now vowed to act “to prevent such disasters in future.”