Lodi News-Sentinel

Families ID loved ones killed in Sierra Leone

- By Alhaji Manika Kamara and Clarence Roy-Macaulay

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Hawa Stevens spoke through tears of the 28 family members she lost after surging mudslides and floodwater­s swept through Sierra Leone’s capital, killing hundreds and leaving hundreds more missing.

“Mother, father, sisters, brothers, cousins all gone. My life has been shattered . ... Please help me God,” she sobbed as she waited in a long line in the pouring rain Wednesday outside Freetown’s overwhelme­d mortuary to try to identify the corpses of her loved ones.

She was surrounded by hundreds of others, some wearing face masks to try to ward off the smell of death and blue hospital booties over their shoes. Many clutched photos in the desperate hope that they would be among those fortunate enough to find their loved ones and give them a proper burial.

For Stevens, the wait brought only disappoint­ment. “I was only able to identify two of my entire family,” she said in anguish.

More than 300 people were confirmed dead — a third of them children — from the devastatin­g mudslides that struck before dawn on Monday, triggered by days of heavy rain. Red Cross officials estimated some 600 others remained missing more than 48 hours after the storm hit while most of the victims slept. Thousands of people lost their homes.

On Wednesday, crews continued the grim work of digging out bodies from the tons of mud and debris that came roaring down the hillsides onto impoverish­ed, low-lying areas of Freetown and surroundin­g settlement­s.

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