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For about 12 hours, many suburbs of Accra were submerged by flush floods, halting business activities and movement of people following incessant rains yesterday. The incident brought along devastation, with reports of 12 deaths including three people that were consumed by fire. There are conflicting reports about the number of deaths in the floods. While some put the death toll at seven, others claim it is more than nine. Two deaths were reported at Kasoa, three at Awoshie, two at Circle, one at Lapaz and another at Achimota. The police in Odorkor confirmed that five people died in the floods but their names were not immediately known. Two people perished in the Awutu Senya district of the Central Region where a 20-year-old boy and his sister died. Their mother was receiving treatment at Korle-Bu. A 25-year-old student of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) was confirmed dead after a wall in her Achimota residence tumbled in the midst of rain. Her name was given as Abigail Opoku Adjei. Another tragic scene was at Awoshie where a two-year-old boy, Bright Kofi, met his untimely death during the downpour. Little Bright was said to have been swept away by the current at about 2am when his father, whose name was only given as Owuraku, tried to find a safe place to put him. Parts mostly hit were areas along the Odaw river stretch including the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Odawna, Alajo, Avenor, Abelemkpe and Abofu, Christian Village while the devastation caused in other areas like Sakaman, Chabar, Mallam, Kwashieman, Abossey Okai, Kaneshie, Lapaz, Anyaa, Sowutuom, Kwashiebu, Awoshie, Nii Boi Town, Tantra Hill, Ofankor and Dome among other areas in the city is beyond measure. Other affected areas were Dansoman, Alajo, Asylum Down, La, Lartebiorkoshie, Chorkor, Kasoa and Agbogbloshie. Thousands of people, particularly residents in the affected areas, have been displaced while the cost of damage runs into millions of Ghana Cedis. Yesterday�s disaster got President John Evans Atta Mills to hit town to assess the extent of damage. He was accompanied by the Mayor of Accra, Alfred Vanderpuije and other senior government officials. According to the Director of Communications at the presidency, the President visited Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Alajo, Dome and Christian Village before returning to the Castle midday to sort out �other matters�.At the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, young men, particularly porters at Neoplan Station, which was also submerged, took advantage of the situation to do brisk business. They helped pedestrians by carrying them on their backs for fees. Owners of commercial motorbikes also made some profit as they took advantage of the situation to charge exorbitantly before carrying passengers to their destinations. At the South Industrial Area, hundreds of people were stranded in the floods which many believe is the heaviest since 1995. At the State Transport Corporation (STC) yard, travellers were stranded while the entire stretch linking the Graphic Road was submerged, making vehicular movements impossible. Passengers at STC Yard, Neoplan Station, VIP Bus Terminal, Imperial Transport, M-Plaza station and others were heavily affected. Several vehicles were grounded and long distance passengers had a hectic time reaching their destinations. Many got flooded as motorists had to offload passengers at unapproved routes. Early morning workers were overwhelmed by the floods and many had to return home disappointedly. Students were given a free day, but many had gone to school before the announcement was made. The floods made many roads in the city unusable. Workers at the Vodafone Headquarters at Kwame Nkrumah Circle were told not to go to work while the Minister of Education, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, asked pupils not to go to school. At Alajo, residents were on their feet until daybreak when the rains subsided. Some questions were raised about the quality of work on the drainage constructed by a Chinese company in the area. When the project was under construction, it was thought that upon completion, the woes of the people of Alajo during the rainy season would be over. It failed an integrity test yesterday when it could not tame the flood which attacked nearby houses because of an inherent engineering challenge it posed. At Odawna, the pedestrians market and the lorry station were submerged, with severe damage occurring along the Odaw drainage and Adabraka. Almost every container erected along the Odaw River was washed away. The flood waters compelled the Odawna trotro drivers to abandon their station and line up along the Vanderpuije Street while their counterparts at Neoplan Station and others improvised the North Industrial road as their lorry station. The Ernest Chemist branch located in the Odaw area was also hit by the floods as workers could not enter the facility.