The flood incident happened at midnight. It was my son who woke us up to look at the water in our room, but before we could rescue ourselves, it had already reached my tummy.
People eventually helped us out. We stood on our landlady’s stairs until around 5.30 am. After the rain stopped, we called the plumber to help us pump the water out. When we got to my own apartment, we saw that a lot of things had been damaged. My freezer, my bed frame, my television, all my shoes and jewellery, Bluetooth home theatre, TV console, my children’s phone, and my clothes. A lot of things got damaged.
I wasn’t myself that day because I had a lot of thoughts. I wouldn’t lie, I was frustrated. The damage in my place was more than ₦2 million. We had to throw a lot of belongings affected by the flood away. I felt completely devastated. I wasn’t myself at all because I had thought so much beyond what I could handle. I was just overwhelmed.
I did not know the video would go viral on social media. Someone had given me a phone number. I called him and decided to make a short video of the condition of my area and send it to the person via WhatsApp.
Not up to 30 minutes later, the man came around, but he couldn’t reach my residence because the floodwater was still very deep. He took a video from where he could stand. He came again in the afternoon while we were pumping the water out, saw everything for himself, and recorded another video.
There was a period when I couldn’t sleep at night till around 3:30 am. I had to take sleeping pills. Each day, I kept remembering some things that I had been looking for, and I could not find them because of the damage caused by the flood.
This is not my own house. I have a small place that I am working on. Even if it is a room, I can go there to start a new life while my children and my yet-to-be-discarded clothes remain here. I want to be happy whenever I am visited because I don’t like the current situation I am in since the incident happened.
My two wardrobes and those of my children are condemned. My bed frame and a whole lot of things. I pray that whenever I leave here, I will leave in good health with my family.
This issue has affected my family. My son, a final year student of Lagos State University, had an exam that day at 11 am and was rushed to the hospital by 7 am, where he was admitted. He had a blood infection. We admitted him twice due to the aftermath of the flood because, after the incident, insects were flying both day and night. We had sprayed insecticide countless times. Up till today, we are still on it.
As narrated by: Adeola Babatunde (Ikorodu, Lagos).
This snippet is published as part of a series, Lagos Under Water.
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