Lilongwe residents panic as heavy rains pour overnight

Lilongwe Areas including 24, 25, 49, Senti, Mgona, and Area 18 were last Valentines night shook by heavy rains that started around 11pm.

Some left the comfort of their houses to seek shelter in outside kitchen. Others kept awake throughout, wondering what would happen next.

Residents kept communication through cellphone calls and social media, especially Facebook, as they expressed their fears.

A Gulliver resident pondered about running to hide at the new stadium construction site as an Area 25 man wrote on Facebook “its very scary”.

“Its another threatening combination of nature rainfall, windfall and thunder in Lilongwe. Lord have mercy,” posted an Area 36 man on his Facebook account.

Uncofirmed reports indicate seven houses have lost roofs and one has been completely destroyed

Early January a hailstorm ripped through the capital city falling houses and wall fences, removing entire rooftops, uprooting trees and in the process damaging property including cars.

Heavy rains have been recorded across Malawi wrecking havoc, damaging houses and crops in Mzimba’s Edingeni area, causing floods in Karonga and parts of Salima, washing away entire homes in Blantyre and Zomba, and extensively flooding the Lower Shire where an entire village except the chief was washed away in Fatima.

The meteorological office through Elina Kululanga has warned now and again that those people living in low areas should consider moving upland.

Forecasts show heavy rains will continue in many parts of the country.

At the meantime over 15 districts have been badly hit, with thousands displaced, others relocated, crops and livestock destroyed demanding for massive relief aid and threatening famine this year in the impoverished landlocked country.