Officials of the National Disaster Management Organization in the Ashanti Region are asking residents living in flood-prone areas to evacuate. Several areas in Kumasi have in the past experienced severe flooding during the rainy season, causing loss to life and property. NADMO's warning comes in the wake of flooding in Accra which claimed seven lives and caused extensive damage to property. According to the Ashanti Regional NADMO co-ordinator, Kofi Osei Amponsah, the organisation is acutely understaffed and lacked the wherewithal to carry out realistic rescue missions. The organisation had therefore teamed up with well endowed institutions like the Fire Service to carry out such missions. But he said the human and financial loss in past floods had been enormous and would pay better for residents to take precautionary measures, including evacuation ahead of the rains to forestall any bitter experiences. The organisation was engaged in pruning shady trees which were close by electric wires or had the wires passing through them, since they were usual hazards in stormy weathers.