Moroccan authorities said on Sunday that an “extraordinary” weather event had caused flooding in southern parts of the country, leaving four people dead and 14 missing.
A local official told AFP that “four people have been killed and 14 are missing” since heavy rains began on Friday in Tata province, some 740 kilometres (460 miles) south of Rabat, and that the death toll could rise.
“Eight houses have been washed away by floodwaters” in several valleys near Tammannath in rural Thatta district, an official said, requesting anonymity.
Normally dry areas in southern Morocco and Algeria are inundated by flooding caused by heavy rains since Friday, officials told AFP on Sunday.
Moroccan meteorological agency spokesman Roussane Youabd told AFP that areas in southern Morocco were being affected by a “very unstable tropical air mass”.
This caused “unstable and violent cloud formation” and heavy rainfall, he said.
Euabd described the event as “exceptional”, saying a “moist tropical air mass moving northwards” brought “intense thunderstorms and significant rainfall, leading to river flooding” in the region.
As a result, the Moroccan Meteorological Service said 47 millimeters of rain fell in three hours in the Ouarzazate region, while Tagnite, close to the Algerian border, received around 170 millimeters.
Heavy rains have battered areas of Morocco that have been suffering from drought for at least six years.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Algeria, authorities confirmed one person was killed and one was missing in floods in the south.
Algeria’s civil defence said an unnamed girl had been swept out to sea in Ilidj, in the far south, and that another person trapped in a car was still missing.
They also announced that they had rescued several families trapped in flooded rivers, mainly in the southern towns of Ilidi and Bechar.
Videos posted on social media showed parts of the Sahara desert flooded with water.
Entire streets were flooded in Ouarzazate, Morocco.
“We haven’t seen rain like this for about 10 years,” local resident Omar Gana told AFP.
Morocco is suffering from severe water shortages after six consecutive years of drought, with dam levels falling to less than 28 percent of capacity by the end of August.
The rain was accompanied by strong winds, gusting up to 100 kph in Ouarzazate and 76 kph in Marrakech, causing “an optical phenomenon that turned the sky orange”, the Meteorological Agency said.
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