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Thunderstorm leaves Entebbe town in ruins
The girls’ dormitory at Nkumba Primary School, which was deroofed by the hailstorm in the wee hours of February 17, 2022. Photos/Eve Muganga
What you need to know:
- The rainstorm started at around 4am yesterday and lasted almost three hours.
Vast parts of Entebbe Town, a beautiful Lake Victoria peninsula, were yesterday reduced to a pile of debris after wee-hour gusty winds toppled trees and deroofed buildings, including schools and police senior quarters.
Thick clouds drifted menacingly for hours and when the skies opened at around 4am, heavy rains pounded with a nature’s vengeance, catching residents, students, and police officers unprepared.
Some of the power poles on the re-touched Entebbe highway were toppled, plunging the peninsula which hosts the State House into darkness.
Vehicles held up in jam after the traffic lights were damaged by the storm.
Travel chaos ensued amid failing traffic lights and impatient motorists heading to work and dropping children at schools huddled cars bumper-to-bumper.
The path of destruction stretched from Nkumba via Katabi to the heart of Entebbe, an upmarket residential that is home to the United Nations base and Uganda’s only international airport.
As the rainstorm hit a crescendo, leaving many houses without roofs, residents, some howling, fled to safety in chaotic escapes. Lightning streaks and thunderbolts added to the horror.
The intense winds uprooted landmark trees and powered flying iron sheets which, luckily injured nobody.
At the senior quarters for police officers, parts of the old tile roofs caved in. By day-break, movement within the town was paralysed until powered saws were deployed for cutting toppled trees that blocked driveways.
Residents and government officials estimated the value of destroyed property in several millions of shillings. The Entebbe Resident District Commissioner Noor Njuuki, who heads the local disaster preparedness committee, later visited to assess in person the extent of damage.
A destroyed house at Chadwick Namate Primary School staff quarters.
Classroom structures and staff residentials at two schools --- Chadwick Namate primary school and Nkumba Primary school --- alongside buildings at Entebbe police quarters, two vehicles of the ministry of Agriculture, and about a dozen billboards were either fully or partially destroyed.
“At first the matron came and woke us up, we didn’t take it seriously thinking it was the normal rain. The next thing was seeing the roofs blown off our dormitories. We cried as everyone was trying to look for where to go until we were told to run to the next dormitory,’’ recounted pupil Sheebah Nantongo, who said the thunderstorm began as they were due to file for preps.
Soaked beddings and books left particularly candidates distressed and stranded.
Ms Majorine Kalemera, the headteacher of Nkumba Primary School, said three dormitories - two for boys and one for girls – that together accommodate 60 pupils, were destroyed.
“We are lucky that no human casualties have been reported … [we ask] whoever has anything to support the school to come in and help us. Otherwise, we have nowhere to go and the term has just begun and we can’t [send the children] back home,” she said.
Ruined police buildings.
All educational institutions in Uganda reopened on January 10 after nearly a two-year closure due to Covid-19 disruptions.
At the ageing Chadwick Namate primary school, one of the oldest in Uganda established in 1901, head teacher Robert Muwonge said his staff now have nowhere to sleep.
He asked alumni and the government to rush help amid the desolation.
