Moroccan authorities reported on Sunday that four people have died and 14 are missing due to flooding caused by an “exceptional” weather phenomenon in the southern regions, reported AFP Agency.
Since heavy rains began on Friday in Tata province, about 740 kilometers south of Rabat, the death toll could rise, according to a local official who spoke to AFP Agency. The official, who preferred to remain anonymous, also said that floods swept away eight houses in valleys near Tamanart, a rural area in Tata region.
Normally arid areas of southern Morocco and Algeria have been hit by flooding caused by heavy rains since Friday, authorities said. AFP Sunday.
Areas in southern Morocco have been hit “by an extremely unstable tropical air mass,” said Lhoussaine Youabd, spokesman for the Moroccan General Directorate of Meteorology. AFP.
This “caused the formation of unstable and violent clouds” that triggered massive rainfall, he explained.
Youabd described the phenomenon as “exceptional” and said areas experienced “severe thunderstorms and significant rainfall, leading to river flooding” as “humid tropical air masses moved northwards”.
The Ouarzazate region received 47 millimetres of rain in three hours, and Tagounite, near the Algerian border, about 170 millimetres, according to the Moroccan meteorological service.
Heavy rains are hitting regions of Morocco that have been suffering from drought for at least six years.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Algeria, authorities confirmed one person dead and another missing due to flooding in the south.
Algeria's civil defence said an unnamed girl was swept away by floodwaters in Illizi in the far south and another person trapped in a vehicle was still missing.
He also said he had rescued several families trapped by flooded rivers, mainly in Illizi and Bechar, also in the south.
Videos posted on social media showed parts of the Sahara Desert soaked.
In Ouarzazate, Morocco, entire streets were flooded.
“We haven't seen this much rain in about 10 years,” said Omar Gana, a local. AFP.
Morocco has been suffering from severe water stress after six consecutive years of drought, reducing dam levels to less than 28 percent of their capacity by the end of August.
The rains were accompanied by strong winds, reaching 100 kilometres per hour in Ouarzazate and 76 kilometres per hour in Marrakech, where they caused “an optical phenomenon, giving the sky an orange tint,” according to the General Directorate of Meteorology.
