One person was killed while several others were injured by thunderstorms that hit different parts of the country.
Houses, Government buildings, schools and roads were damaged in the past week.
Government has since assured the nation of warnings of impending disaster and assistance to those affected.
Local Government and Public Works Minister July Moyo said Government was responding to challenges caused by the rains.
“We dispatched some teams countrywide to monitor the damage that might be caused,” he said.
“We have some officers who are on high alert at district and provincial level to assist those who have been affected.
“Those affected should immediately report any damage caused by heavy rains and strong winds to get assistance.”
Minister Moyo said the Ministry was in the process of conducting awareness campaigns countrywide to educate people on dangers caused by weather patterns.
In Matabeleland North Province, a storm damaged Komba Primary School in Lupane on Friday, leaving a 7-year-old boy dead and his mother and siblings injured, and wrecked 21 homesteads in Gudubu Village.
The District Civil Protection Unit, which visited the school, is mobilising resources to resuscitate it.
In Hwange, in the Mashala area, about 20 homesteads were damaged.
Thunderstorms are often accompanied by strong winds, a result of rotating winds from the cloud to the earth, especially at the beginning of the season.
In Beitbridge last Thursday, strong winds, which lasted for seven minutes, damaged roofs at shops, a clinic, teachers’ cottages, churches and nine homesteads in the Shashe area.
In Zezani, in Ward 10, authorities were still assessing the extent of the damage by the time of going to press yesterday.
Two people were injured in the Shashe area in Ward 8, with one senior citizen (64) breaking his leg while attempting to flee a house whose walls were falling in.
An 11-year old girl sustained a deep cut below her right knee when she fell on broken glass as she sought to avoid a falling roof at their family house.
At Shashe Business Centre, five shops with stock worth over $250 000, had their roofs blown off.
“My grocery store that was opened
in the 1960s was damaged with stock value of $5 000,” said businessman and farmer Mr Musa Dube.
“As it stands, I will move what I can to safety, including my livestock.”
Additionally, the Maramani community, including the Shashe area, has lost electricity supplies after pylons were uprooted.
The damage to Shashe Clinic, which has a catchment of 4 000 people, has left people having to travel for 50 kilometres to either Swereki or Nottingham to access health facilities.
Authorities at Shashe Secondary School have temporarily suspended classes for 231 pupils until the damage is repaired.
Acting Beitbridge district civil protection committee chairman Mr Jahson Mugodzwa said they were assessing damage in wards 7, 8 and 10.
In Masvingo, heavy rains coupled with strong winds, damaged over 50 homes and buildings including Government offices near Nyika Growth Point in Bikita.The Herald
