The Abia State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has said 21 people have lost their lives in communities across the State, due to the ravaging flood.
The SEMA Executive Secretary, Sunday Jackson, confirmed the figure on Friday, during the distribution of relief materials to some victims by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Jackson said Abia State was one of the 32 States predicted by the Nigeria Hydrological Services to suffer flood.
The SEMA chief said the State has recorded flooding in 16 of the 17 local government areas.
The NEMA Director-General, Mustapha Ahmed, who was represented by the Head of Owerri Operations Office, Ifeanyi Nnaji, commiserated with Abia over the disaster.
Ahmed said the 2022 Flood Outlook forecasted that 233 LGAs in 32 states and the FCT were within highly risk areas.
No less than 212 LGAs in 35 states of the Federation are within moderately probable flood risk areas.