AL-MUKALLA (Agencies): Torrential rain and flooding has killed at least 24 people in Yemen since the beginning of May, with the country’s National Meteorological Center on Tuesday issuing a new warning to Yemenis against traversing watercourses.
The meteorological center in Sanaa forecast rainfall across the country’s central and northern highlands in Saada, Hajjah, Dhamar and other regions, advising residents to avoid traveling through and staying in flood courses. The same center issued a similar warning about excessive rainfall, inundation and landslides in mountainous regions of the country.
The warnings come as local media and villagers claim that heavy rains triggered severe floods that killed at least 24 people and washed away farms, residences and vehicles. Other local media reports place the death toll from flooding since the beginning of the month at more than 40.
A small village, Al-Mehraq, in the Utmah District of the central province of Dhamar, was declared a disaster area after heavy rain and flooding devastated the area, killing one child and injuring several others, triggering landslides, trapping and displacing many families, and washing away farms and a flock of sheep.
Images on social media show locals attempting to recover the remains of the deceased child and her family after the collapse of their home. Another home collapsed owing to severe flooding in Taiz’s Al-Mawasit District, killing a child and injuring other family members.
Locals in Ibb province’s Al-Makhadir District discovered the remains of two women who died after being swept away by floodwaters while crossing a waterway as heavy rain wreaked havoc on fields and highways across the agricultural district.
The deadliest single flood-related incident occurred in the mountainous province of Raymah, where at least nine people were killed and three others injured when their vehicle skidded off a rain-damaged road.
During the past two weeks, six children have perished in water-filled ditches in the provinces of Shabwa and Hajjah. The tragic incidents prompted warnings to Yemeni parents to keep an eye on their children when they are swimming or venturing outside during or after a rainstorm. Floods in other provinces have also killed numerous other Yemenis.
In its regular agrometeorological early warning bulletin last week, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization said that heavy rainfall and flash flooding would continue to imperil mountainous and coastal areas, affecting thousands of residents.
