Yemeni Monitor/Hodeidah/Special
The heavy rains that lashed coastal western Yemen yesterday, Tuesday, have caused severe damage, resulting in the loss of families and fatalities. Floods have cut off roads, inundated residential areas, and swept away farms, homes, vehicles, and thousands of livestock, amid forecasts of continued rainfall in the coming hours.
According to information gathered from Hodeidah governorate, there is an unknown number of casualties and missing persons due to the floods, with the majority in districts located along the “Wadi Zabid and Wadi Saham” corridor. Residents are appealing for assistance in searching for the missing and providing shelter and food.
Residents explained that the “unprecedented floods and rains have struck a wide area from Midi in the north to Al-Khokha in the south, concentrating in areas near the valleys of Zabid, Rama, and Nakhla in the south, Seham in the center, and Mawr in the north.”
The rains and floods have also hit villages and rural districts east of Hodeidah, from Bajil to the city, causing significant human and material losses.
Information indicates that several neighborhoods in the city (the governorate center) have been submerged in large swamps and lakes, with rainwater and sewage entering homes.
Weather forecasts indicate that heavy rains are expected to continue today, with varying intensities of rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms, downbursts, and hail over the highlands and coastal areas of Tihama, as well as the governorates of Saada, Hajjah, Mahwit, Rima, Ibb, and parts of Dhamar and Taiz.
The Yemeni Meteorological Authority also forecast moderate to heavy rainfall, occasionally accompanied by thunder, in parts of the governorates of Amran, Sana’a, Al-Dhale’e, and Lahj, and scattered rainfall in the governorates of Al-Jawf, Marib, Al-Bayda, the highlands of Abyan, Shabwa, Hadramaut, Al-Mahra, and parts of the southern coast.
The Meteorological Center stated that the amount of rainfall recorded in the past 24 hours at some weather stations reached 95.9 mm in Hodeidah, 30.5 mm in Hajjah, 22.4 mm in Dhamar, 19 mm in Mahwit, 19.5 mm in Sana’a, 16.6 mm in Rima, and 15.1 mm in Ibb.
Thunderstorms of varying intensity have occurred inside and outside the range of weather stations in areas of the western mountain ranges, inland plateaus, and parts of the highlands of Abyan, Shabwa, and Hadramaut.
