OF THE
TIMES
Moroccan authorities on Sunday said that 11 people died and nine were missing in flooding caused by an "exceptional" climate phenomenon in southern areas.Anadolu Ajansı reports:
Interior ministry spokesman Rachid Khalfi said authorities recorded an initial "toll of 11 deaths" after "heavy thunderstorms" that hit "17 prefectures and provinces in the kingdom".
Among the victims, seven died in the province of Tata, some 740km (460 miles) south of Rabat, and two in Errachidia, almost 500km east of Marrakesh, according to Khalfi.
He said one of the victims had foreign citizenship, without providing further details.
Khalfi also said "the volume of precipitation recorded in two days is equivalent to that which these regions normally experience during an entire year".
The floods also caused the collapse of 40 homes and damaged 93 roads, and "affected electricity, drinking water and telephone networks", he added.
Usually arid areas in southern Morocco and Algeria have been drenched in floods caused by massive rainfall since Friday, officials told Agence France-Presse on Sunday.
Areas in southern Morocco have been affected "by an extremely unstable tropical air mass", the spokesman for the Moroccan General Directorate of Meteorology, Lhoussaine Youabd, said.
This "led to the formation of unstable and violent clouds" that caused massive rainfall, he said, describing the phenomenon as "exceptional".
As a result, the Ouarzazate region received 47mm of water in three hours, and Tagounite, near the Algerian border, some 170mm, according to the Moroccan weather service.
Death toll from floods in southeastern Morocco rises to 18
Interior Ministry reports 4 people still missing, infrastructure suffered extensive damage
The number of people who died in floods caused by heavy rainfall in southeastern Morocco has risen to 18, local authorities said Monday.
In a statement, the Interior Ministry said fatalities were caused by severe storms and floods.
At least 59 people have been killed in Vietnam amid landslides and floods triggered by Typhoon Yagi, according to state media reports.Update September 11
The typhoon was Asia's most powerful storm this year and made landfall on Vietnam's northeastern coast on Saturday, after causing havoc in China and the Philippines.
Among the victims were six people, including a newborn baby and a one-year-old boy, who were killed in a landslide in the Hoang Lien Son mountains of northwestern Vietnam.
Their bodies were discovered on Sunday, a local official told the AFP news agency.
Other victims included a family of four who were killed after heavy rain caused a hillside to collapse onto a house in mountainous Hoa Binh province in northern Vietnam, state media reported.
On Monday morning, a passenger bus carrying 20 people was swept into a flooded stream by a landslide in mountainous Cao Bang province.
Rescuers were deployed, but landslides blocked the path to where the incident took place.
In Phu Tho province, rescue operations were continuing after a steel bridge over the engorged Red River collapsed.
Reports said 10 cars and trucks, along with two motorbikes, fell into the river.
Three people were pulled out of the river and taken to hospital, but 13 others were missing.
The Vietnamese government said the storm disrupted power supplies and telecommunications in several parts of the country, mostly in Quang Ninh and Hai Phong in the northeast.
The weather agency on Monday warned of more floods and landslides, noting that rainfall had ranged between 208mm and 433mm (8.2 inches to 17 inches) in several parts of the region over the past 24 hours.
"Floods and landslides are damaging the environment and threatening people's lives," the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said in a report.
Yagi weakened to a tropical depression on Sunday, but several areas of the port city of Hai Phong were under half a metre (1.6 feet) of water and there was no electricity.
At Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 70km (43 miles) up the coast from the city, the disaster management authority said 30 vessels sank after being pounded by strong wind and waves.
The typhoon also damaged nearly 3,300 houses, and more than 120,000 hectares (296,500 acres) of crops in the north of the country, the authority said.
A flash flood swept away an entire hamlet in northern Vietnam, killing 30 people and leaving dozens missing as deaths from a typhoon and its aftermath climbed to 155 on Wednesday.
Vietnamese state broadcaster VTV said the torrent of water gushing down from a mountain in Lao Cai province Tuesday buried Lang Nu hamlet with 35 families in mud and debris.
Only about a dozen are known so far to have survived. Rescuers have recovered 30 bodies and are continuing the search for about 65 others.
The death toll from Typhoon Yagi and its aftermath has climbed to 155. Another 141 people are missing and hundreds were injured, VTV said.
Comment: On the same day a lightning strike also claimed 2 lives in Odisha, India while another bolt killed 3 in the state of Uttar Pradesh.