Olodu community in Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta state affected by the September 23 flood has relocated to a new area.

The traditional ruler of the community, Obi Alexander Ifechukude, disclosed this to the NAN in Asaba where he had been taking refuge since the incident.

Ifechukwude said that his people's decision to relocate to a new site was inevitable as the destruction of the community by the flood was much.

He described the decision to move out of their ancestral home to a new site as "painful", adding that it was aimed at averting more losses should such disaster befall the community again.

"We have moved about three kilometres away from our ancestral home and we have made sure that the location is a higher ground which will not be overrun by flood in future," he said.

He explained that the decision to relocate was a consensus of all inhabitants in the community.

The monarch appealed to the Federal and the Delta governments to assist the people in building the new community, especially with the provision of schools, health facility and water.

He said that for more than 500 years of the community's existence in that locality, it has never witnessed the magnitude of disruption as wrecked on it by the flood.

The monarch claimed that the community suffered the most devastating impact of all communities in the 14 local government areas ravaged by flood in the state.

He disclosed that more than 3,000 households were submerged while farms were washed away.

According to him, his subjects had started erecting mud houses and tents for themselves in the new town.

The traditional ruler also stated that the people were already "putting heads together" to provide shelter for him in the new community, even as he maintained that their greatest challenge has been potable water.

NAN