Team Herald
SANGUEM: Over 20 houses and a large number of agricultural plantations at Pokormoll Ward of Kalay Village Panchayat in Sanguem suffered damages after a short spell of gusty winds accompanied by rain, thunder and lightning hit the village, in the afternoon hours, on Sunday.
The sudden gusty winds took everyone by surprise as no other ward in the village except Pokormoll Ward witnessed the phenomena.
Panch Bablo Kharat informed that the winds came all of a sudden and damaged about 20 houses. The roof tops and cemented sheets of many houses got blown off several metres away from their houses.
“Agricultural plantations all over the Pokormoll Ward was totally damaged,” informed Kharat.
“Coconut, cashew and banana plantations were severely hit. A large number of trees were uprooted in the village making the villagers face considerable amount of loss.”
Kharat said that while exact amount of loss is not determined as of now, over 20 families have suffered extreme damages to their houses and plantations.
Sarpanch of Kalay Panchayat Kishore Rama Gauns Dessai said that only the villagers residing at Pokormoll Ward were affected.
Dessai said that it is sad on the part of the government that in case of incidents like this there is no system in place for immediate payment of compensation towards the damages suffered by the villagers.
The people at times have to wait for several months to get compensation and this makes the people with poor financial background suffer to a great extent.
Speaking further Dessai informed that at a recently held meeting of the Disaster Management Committee, a proposal was submitted by him to the Committee member to sanction some funds to the village panchayats for immediate disbursement in such cases as even a small amount at this time of emergency would be of great help to the affected families.
A couple of vehicles which were parked outside the residential houses were also damaged after the roof sheets and other materials came crashing down on parked vehicles.
