Monday 10 September 2012
ShelterBoxes requested for flooded Senegal
A ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) is assessing the need for emergency shelter in Senegal, following heavy rains that have caused flooding in various areas over the past few weeks.
Ibrahima Laye Thiome, the disaster management coordinator for the Senegalese Red Cross, contacted former US resident and SRT member, Rick Commiso, who lives in the West African country, to request ShelterBoxes for the affected regions.
"Dakar, the capital, has been hit pretty hard," said Commiso. "There are over 1,800 families displaced and currently staying in schools and other structures across the city.”
Commiso visited an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp housing hundreds of people, but many families who will need to leave the camp by the end of September or October have nowhere to return.
UK-based SRT members, Ed Owen and Sanchia Gallagher have joined Commiso in Senegal to assess the damage and need for emergency shelter and liaise with the Red Cross.
