Al-Hudaydah Governorate, western Yemen, witnessed extremely heavy rains on Tuesday, resulting in torrential floods, the worst in several years, causing severe damage to most of the governorate’s districts.
Local sources said that the heavy rains that fell on the governorate on Tuesday evening, continued for five continuous hours, until Wednesday dawn and flooded large areas in most of the governorate’s coastal directorates, including the Hudaydah city and caused severe damage to homes, property, and agricultural lands.
While no official statistics have yet been issued by any party regarding the loss of lives or properties as a result of the heavy rains and resulting floods, despite the passage of more than 11 hours, the Executive Unit for the Management of Displaced Persons’ Camps in Hudydah confirmed that the torrents caused severe damage to the camps, the homes of the displaced, and their property. In addition to damage to infrastructure and farms and the death of livestock.
Earlier Crisis24 group reported that Disruptions due to flooding ongoing in Al Hudaydah Governorate, Yemen, as of early Aug. 7, and “Further severe weather is forecast over Yemen over the coming hours.”.
Crisis24 report added that disruptions to electricity and telecommunications services are possible where significant flooding or landslides impact utility networks, and due to the arid nature of the region and poor storm water management in some urban areas, even minor rainfall accumulations could quickly result in episodes of flash flooding.
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Yemen reported earlier that this year, heavy rains & flooding have reportedly affected over 158,000 people and caused 10 deaths & 14 injuries as of 28 July, and that Aid partners respond to the needs of the most vulnerable across the country.