Heavy windstorm has destroyed about 14 buildings and 15 electric poles in 61-year-old Fr. Joseph Memorial High School (FJMHS), Aguleri in Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra state.
The affected buildings include administration block, classroom blocks, kitchen, hotel block and pavilion as well as electric poles within the school which is owed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Onitsha.
The school is also one of the biggest and effective camp for people displaced by flooding on yearly bases.
Rev. Fr Izuu Okoye, Principal of the school said the incident had displaced the boarding and learning environment of the students.
Okoye said electricity supply in the school had been cut off due to the fallen poles thus making water supply impossible in the premises.
The principal who said there was no loss of life, blamed the level of destruction which also affected surrounding environment on absence of trees which should worked as windbreaker.
He said the management was in a dilemma of resettling the learning environment to ensure that over 1,600 students of the school commence internal examination on April 15.
“It happened on Saturday, April 10, that was the same day our students returned from Easter break, around 8:30 pm in the evening, the storm removed the roof of a pavilion structure and slammed it on others.
“Our examination hall block, a storey building, all collapsed, our library was destroyed, some buildings in our staff quarters were also destroyed save for a few, precisely on three two buildings were spared,” he said.
The principal called for speedy assistance from federal and state governments to come to the aid of the school.
On their part, the Old Boys Association of the described the incident as natural disaster which was beyond what ordinary windstorm would do.
Dr Emman Udeakpeh, President of FJMHS Old Boys Association said the school community was still in deep shock but was making frantic efforts to ensure that normal academic atmosphere returned quickly.
According to him, it looked like tornado, the destruction was much and we need the efforts of everybody to fix the destruction because the school and the Church cannot do it on their own.
“For us the Old Boys, it is a trying moment and emergency situation but we are doing our best to ensure normalcy returns.
“We advise that people go into massive tree planting to serve our environment, this will help to reduce the effect of this type of storm, “ he said.
The National Emergency Management Agency and Anambra State Emergency Management Agency had jointly visited the school to assess the level of damage
