Coping with the flood aftermath

Two days after the flood, Hailat Gebreamelak was still in shock. Standing in front of the morgue, waiting to identify a dead relative, his hands shook. "I felt like someone hit me," the 26-year-old survivor of the flood that hit Dire Dawa on Sunday said. "It was dark. Before I could decide what I should do, I was in the middle of the flash flood." Carried a few kilometres away from his house by the raging water, Hailat was later rescued and taken to hospital for treatment. "Those who saved me said that it is a miracle I survived without any serious injury," he said, revealing stitches on his hand and leg. That Sunday morning, he had work to do - waking a businessman in time to catch a bus to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. For doing this, he expected to be paid 20-25 Birr (about US $3). Two hours before his mission, however, the flood water filled his house in the Kefira area. "I got proper medical [treatment] but someone from the hospital took my blanket that I got from the Red Cross," he added. "The doctors told me that I will get my blanket back soon." Hailat is one of 10,000 people in Dire Dawa who are homeless after the flood swept away their houses. Inspector Binyam Fikru, spokesman for the Dire Dawa Police Commission, said all the homeless are sheltered in five schools within the city. By Tuesday, the number of dead had reached 200 after 10 more bodies were brought to the Dil Chora Hospital morgue. The bodies were recovered a few kilometres away from Dire Dawa at Shinelle during a search by the defence force and the police. Chuchu Tesema, one of the soldiers who participated in the search, told IRIN they had found the bodies scattered over a wide area. The villagers, he added, had covered the dead with sand and watched over them all night to protect them from hyenas. Dr Abel Mekonnen, medical director of the hospital, said there were fears of an epidemic because of the increasing number of people crowded together. "The city’s health bureau divided the city into five catchments," he explained. "In each catchment, a mobile clinic is established. Each clinic has one sanitary officer and two nurses. We also work with the International Medical Corps. They gave us their nurses." The police were still warning people via radio of the possibility of another flood. "We are also preparing to build a defence wall with the sacks of sand," Binyam added. "For this purpose we are bringing in 600 trainee police from their training camp at Hurso, 12km from Dire Dawa." Across the city, the digging continued as people searched for their loved ones. Police said an estimated 300 people could still not be found. tw/mw/eo