by Alan Dixon, SIM Burkina Faso, Area Director
4 September 2009

It seems that the city of Ouagadougou just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. On September 1, a strong tropical storm system stalled over Ouagadougou. It started to rain about 4:30 in the morning, a nice gentle rain for over an hour. About 6:00, the time we usually get out of bed, the downpour started and continued off and on till about 4:00 in the afternoon. The metrological service registered 97 mm (about 4 inches) of rain between 7:00 and 8:00 AM, an incredible downpour. The rainfall recorded by 4:00 PM was 263 mm (over 10 inches) for the day.

This is the highest one day rainfall in recorded history in Burkina Faso. On August 31,1914, 246 mm were recorded in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s second largest city. The previous highest one-day recorded rainfall for Ouagadougou was 120 mm in 1953. There was likely some variation throughout the city which may account for varied reports. Ouaga has several low areas and water courses with damage particularly significant in those areas.

The city is much calmer this morning and the flood waters have mostly receded. The government estimates that there are about 150,000 people whose homes are no longer habitable—either completely or partially destroyed. About 110,000 of these people have taken shelter in schools and are receiving some emergency aid through government channels. They report only five deaths, but many remain unaccounted for. If this flood had happened during nighttime hours, it would certainly have resulted in a much greater catastrophe in terms of loss of life.

Just after noon Alison and I went to Paspanga, an area of town about 4 km from our house, to help out the family of a church member there—carrying two of his children and some of their personal effects back to the SIM compound. Water was rising in his yard, but had not yet entered his house. Water had backed up about six city blocks at that point. We were able to wade through water to a nearby office building under construction where we went up to the fifth floor to survey the damage. A widespread area was flooded and the EE-SIM church, several blocks away, was under about 8 feet of water. It is located just one block from the floodway, downstream from one of Ouagadougou’s dams, which itself was under two feet of water. This is one of the areas where many houses fell. We heard one fall quite close by while we were loading up the car for this family. This is one of the rare times that we have seen hundreds of people in the streets in the pouring rain.

Electricity was cut for several hours as the main diesel generating station located in the sector of Paspanga was also flooded. Our power was restored at 8 p.m. the same day and for many the next day, but some are still without power. The water treatment plant at Paspanga was also flooded and shut down. This has resulted in no water in some areas of the city and very low pressure in others. The official word from ONEA (the government water service) is that they are having difficulties, but do have adequate reserves.

The main hospital, Yalgado, is not far from the same dam. Its back wall came down and several of the buildings of the hospital compound were flooded. Many patients were evacuated to other hospitals in town. Clean-up is underway but damage, particularly to equipment, is extensive.

There was no serious damage for SIM workers, although one of our guys had a couple of inches of water throughout his house—water running in from the street. A wall fell down at another worker’s house, resulting in minor damage to two vehicles. Several of our Burkinabé staff had some damage to their homes and one’s car was engulfed in water after getting caught in the flood-waters while attempting to get to work. We are thankful for God’s protection and pray that those much less fortunate will get the help they need.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Pray

• Please pray for the Burkinabé who have lost everything.
• Pray that emergency relief would come quickly and easily to those who need it most.
• Pray that our team will have wisdom to prioritize needs as they help with clean-up and rebuilding.

Give

SIM Burkina has set up a relief fund to begin helping people in need. For now it is initial emergency aid, but within a few days we will be looking at helping with housing and other needs ... particularly for those in SIM-related churches and their neighbors. We will rely on the local Pastor`s committee to help determine needs and distribution.

Any financial help will be appreciated. Gifts can be made through any SIM office for the Ouagadougou Flood Relief project (93918). It's going to take a long time for this to go away. Thank you for your partnership with us.