Residents across Nigeria's commercial hub, Lagos, are bracing for more rain after the city experienced 11 hours of downpour on Sunday that left homes and business premises flooded.
Photos and videos on social media have shown shop owners standing waist-deep in floodwaters as they salvaged their wares.
Some commuters were also filmed frantically climbing out of windows and doors of buses as the vehicles got submerged in gushing flood.
Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) has appealed to residents to ‘’exercise extreme caution due to continuous rainfall."
‘’I have never seen anything like this,’’ a resident told TRT Afrika.
‘’I live around Ojo area of Lagos and the water got up to my waist. The whole road was flooded. All the shops in Ojo area in Lagos were flooded,’’ she said.
The areas heavily affected were the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, Ebute-Ero, Lagos Island, Satellite Town, Trade Fair, Abule-Ado, and Ago Palace Way, all within the Lagos metropolis.
Nema said most residential buildings in the city have not adhered to building codes - some were erected on waterways - which has resulted in persistent flooding over the years.
National alert
Nigeria’s emergency agency said it was also on alert on possible flooding across the country, especially in the north-eastern Adamawa state where officials fear that River Benue could burst its banks.
The heightened monitoring in the state was part of ‘’an effort to mitigate the impact of the impending flood disaster on vulnerable communities along the banks of the River Benue.’’
Three people have died in the latest floods, with the agency warning that communities on flood paths must be alert and be ready to move swiftly to higher ground.
