No fewer than 200 buildings and property worth millions of naira were on Monday evening destroyed by a rainstorm which accompanied 2013 first rainfall in Owo, Ondo State.
Residential and public buildings, shops, vehicles, public schools, churches and stadium were badly damaged by the rainstorm.
Mostly affeceted were one of the oldest schools in the town, the Imade College, the General Hospital, Owo Stadium, Methodist High School, St Catherine Anglican Girls Grammar School and Methodist Church.
Electric poles were deamaged leading to black out in the town.
Commercial activities were affected on major streets like Oke-Ogun, Iloro, Ehin-Ogbe, Uka as the roofs of many shops were blown off by the rainstorm.
Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr. Niran Sule-Akinsuyi, lamented the extent of damage caused by the storm.
He said, "Relevant authorities and agencies of government must quickly come to the aid of the affected people as many of them have been rendered homeless."
The lawmaker representing Owo Constituency 1 in the state House of Assembly, Mr. Ayo Arowele, noted that many of the people no longer had shelters.
He appealed to the Federal Government, the National Emergency Management Authority, the state government and other concerned bodies to assist the people in their effort to rebuild the destroyed houses and shops.
Bishop, Owo Diocese of Methodist Church, Solomon Adegbite, appealed to the federal and state governments to come to the aid of the people.
In a related development, residents of Obasanjo Estate, in Ikere Ekiti are still counting their losses following a rain which destroyed their buildings.
Our correspondent gathered that the rain which started around 5pm on Monday blew off roofs of some of the buildings in the estate.
Also, electric poles and some trees were also uprooted by the rainstorm.
The damage caused by the rainstorm is not limited to the estate as stalls and some buildings in the Shasha Market opposite the estate were destroyed.
The chairman of the Landlords and Residents Association of the estate, Mr. Jide Ogunluyi, said the destruction of electric poles had thrown the estate into darkness.
He said, "We are counting our losses. Parts of the roof of my building were damaged. Some of the electric poles were pulled down. We have been thrown into darkness since this happened.
"We have complained to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria and we are expecting them to come to our rescue."
The estate had, about four years ago, suffered a similar damage by rainstorm which damaged most of the buildings in the estate.
After this, the residents planted trees in front of their buildings to serve as windbreakers
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