Landslides, heavy rain in Yemen’s central highland kill 33

AL-MUKALLA: Mudslides and flash flooding caused by hours of torrential rain slammed across a highland Yemeni district, killing at least 33 people, according to media and locals on Wednesday.

It came as Yemen’s National Center of Meteorology warned on Wednesday of severe weather over the following 24 hours, mostly in the country’s central highlands and western regions.

Houthi media said on Wednesday that strong rains and landslides in the Melhan district of the province of Mahweet killed 33 people and damaged about 200 homes.

Civil defense workers arrived in the affected districts on Wednesday and recovered the bodies of 10 people, according to Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV.

Images and amateur videos broadcast by local media and online users showed people in Melhan district’s Al-Lahef village, the hardest hit area, retrieving the dead and survivors buried beneath their homes using agricultural equipment and their bare hands.

Several bodies of dead villagers were also seen scattered across the valleys and under trees. Rescuers wearing Yemeni Red Crescent clothing carried a child’s body and others for burial.

Local officials said that a hilltop dam collapsed after the rains in Al-Lahef, triggering a landslide that killed at least 20 people, including entire families. The landslide also swept away homes, farms and cars.

At the same time, severe rains and flooding wreaked havoc in Yemen’s western province of Hodeidah and other regions over the last 24 hours, killing at least two people and destroying houses and infrastructure.

Residents of Hodeidah and other Yemeni western coastal districts said that heavy rain fell for hours on Tuesday evening, causing flash flooding that inundated residential areas, swept away cars, and destroyed roads and farmland.

Heavy rain and flooding are said to have damaged dozens of houses, mosques and farms, as well as buried more than two dozen wells in Harib Al-Qaramish, Marib province.

Yemen’s National Center of Meteorology said on Wednesday that the country’s central highlands and western provinces would see heavy rainfall and flash flooding over the coming 24 hours, adding that recorded rainfall over the previous 24 hours totaled 111.6 mm in Hodeidah, 37.5 mm in Raymah, 31 mm in Dhamar, 30.7 mm in Shabwa and 28 mm in Mahweet.

People in Yemen’s hardest hit regions warned that they were seeing record rainfall and flooding in terms of devastation. Ibrahim Al-Mezjaji, a resident of western Yemen, told Arab News that rain poured down on his neighborhood for the first time in days, causing damage to houses and farmland.

“Homes are not built to handle such intense rain, and they would collapse if it continued for more than a few days,” Al-Mezjaji said.

Since late July, at least 100 people have been killed by heavy rain, torrential flooding and lightning in Yemen. The harsh weather has devastated various Yemeni localities, destroying houses, roads and farmland, isolating Yemeni towns, and disrupting electricity and water supplies.