People captured images of Tuesday's downpours and flooding on their mobile phones, posting images on social media, including scenes of cars submerged by flood waters.
In one dramatic video, a man on a bulldozer pulls the lifeless body of a little girl out of the water in a flooded area in northern Sharqia Province as shouts and screams are heard in the background. Another video shows a policeman, steps away from the presidential palace in Cairo's district of Heliopolis, wading into a flooded street to unclog a sewage drain.
Where the streets have no drains ...
โ Dahlia Eissa (@dahlia_eissa) October 22, 2019
A few inches of rain in #Cairo pic.twitter.com/1epXjE26Jq
Authorities closed schools and universities in the greater Cairo area Wednesday and companies saw only skeletal staff show up at work. Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly said school closures were limited to the greater Cairo area, including Giza and Qalioubia, as more rainfall was expected in the next couple of days, according to the country's weather service.
The mayhem raised questions about Cairo's ability to deal with such heavy rains as the city's infrastructure and sewage and drainage systems have suffered from years of poor maintenance.
People took to social media to criticize the government's lack of preparedness. Cairo, a city of some 20 million people, has been left for decades in neglect and decay, particularly its overcrowded neighborhoods.
Hashtags like "(hash)Egypt is sinking" were trending on social media, attracting many videos and pictures of the most affected areas in Cairo and elsewhere.
Cairo after rain pic.twitter.com/ogwHzUQ5Dl
โ Sameh (@samehtanios) October 23, 2019
Cairo is literally sinking because of rain today. I hope the government is satisfied with all the "infrastructure" projects it's spending budget on. pic.twitter.com/1A5qVml9fO
โ Mina Kamel (@minafkamel) October 22, 2019
Five deaths occurred in the Nile Delta provinces of Sharqia, Gharbia and Kafr el-Sheikh, according to the Interior Ministry. Three of the victims, including two children, were electrocuted. The other two victims died falling from the rooftops of their flooded homes.
Local authorities in northern Sinai also reported two deaths. Moataz Taher, head of the el-Hassana municipality, said in a statement that a 47-year-old farmer and his 13-year-old daughter died early Wednesday in the flooding.
In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, the heavy rain caused a three-story building to collapse Wednesday, killing a 7-year-old child and injuring her 19-year-old brother, according to the city's civil protection authority.
In Cairo, the eastern suburb of Nasr City was hit the hardest, but so was Heliopolis, located near Cairo's international airport. The government said the two suburbs had received at least 650,000 cubic meters cubic feet of precipitation in just 90 minutes on Tuesday, overwhelming the city's sewage and drain systems.
Trucks fanned out across Cairo to drain water from flooded areas. A key highway connecting Cairo to other provinces was closed, the state-run al-Ahram daily reported.
EgyptAir said it had delayed some fights on Tuesday because passengers were stuck on the roads and unable to get to the airport. A part of the old Cairo airport terminal which has been under renovation was also flooded, with footage on social media showing rainwater pouring into the hallway.
The Civil Aviation Ministry said that terminal was only being used by a private carrier for one or two flights a day and shared photos of it after it was cleaned up.
Source: Associated Press
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