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Herald Reporters

The Department of Civil Protection is organising helicopter rescues and funding to repair infrastructure damaged by heavy rains and violent storms that have seen 19 people killed by lightning and 85 schools and 21 clinics damaged.

The new Karanda Bridge in Mashonaland Central saw one if its decks swept away on Tuesday. Rains have damaged a prison in Rusape and killed one person and damaged infrastructure in Silobela in the Midlands last weekend.

According to the department the most affected province is Midlands.

Department of Civil Protection director, Mr Nathan Nkomo said the rains resulted in loss of amenities such as schools, clinics, Government buildings and a prison.

“We have disbursed money to Midlands for the rehabilitation of the damaged schools and our provincial development coordinator has been given part of that money. We have also sent out money to more than 49 rural districts to carry out surveillance in preparation for any eventuality. The money might not be enough, but it gives sub-national civil protection communities a starting point in terms of assisting those who might have such disasters

“For Umwe floods, Ngezi floods and Mberengwa we have some people who were marooned and we despatched an Air Force of Zimbabwe helicopter to assist them. What we are now waiting for are the actual statistics of how many people were marooned.

“Because when people are marooned, you cannot tell how many they are. You only get to know of the actual figures when those people get assistance so all my sub-national structures are yet to inform me of how many people were affected.

“In terms of lightning, the figure of killed people remains at 19. Those were the causalities which I can comfortably mention for now,’’ he said.