Kurdistan
A house in Kalar damaged by flood due to heavy rainstorm on February 16, 2024. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Several families evacuated their homes, and houses succumbed to material damage in the early hours of Friday in the town of Kalar, in Garmiyan administration, as several cities in the Kurdistan Region flooded due to a heavy rainstorm the previous day.
In the town’s Kalari Nwe neighborhood, several families evacuated their homes due to flooding, while others chose to stay overnight in a futile attempt to protect their houses from the water.
“We haven’t slept until now,” a local resident told Rudaw’s Hunar Hamid in the early hours of Friday, “Water has entered all the rooms.”
According to the woman, water levels have increased by about 50 centimeters, causing significant damage to the furniture in the house.
An elderly man told Rudaw while crying that the flood has killed around 42 of his sheep and lambs, as well as damaging the fodder warehouse.
In the footage, flood water can be seen covering the entirety of his house yard, hours after the rainstorm had already stopped.
The storm also damaged a health center in the neighborhood, partially destroying one of its walls, according to the center’s workers.
One of the security guards working at the health center said the gravity of the damage remains to be ascertained due to a power cut that plunged the building into darkness.
“The medicines are placed in higher spots, I guess they are not damaged,” he said.
Dr Niha Mohammed, the head of the health center who joined forces with the workers to mop up the remaining water, told Rudaw that a damage assessment will be carried out once power is restored.
“We will try to clean it up [the center] and resume services,” Mohammed said.
The Babagurgur Health Center, which Mohammed presides over, had already come under the impact of flooding once before in 2015.
The Kurdistan Region has witnessed a wave of torrential rain since Wednesday afternoon. Local authorities in Garmiyan and Raparin administrations declared a public holiday on Thursday due to the rain.
In the Region’s capital of Erbil, heavy rain and floods caused material damage with Erbil Defense Directorate’s spokesperson announcing that around 40 vehicles had been submerged.
Floods are a common natural calamity in Erbil, at times resulting in death and destruction. In late 2021 and early 2022, Erbil bore the brunt of heavy rainstorms that hit the Region, causing flooding affecting at least 826 families in the Kurdish capital. Twelve people were killed, including a ten-month-old baby. The Ministry of Municipality and Tourism at the time assessed that the damages amounted to more than 21 billion dinars (over $14 million).
In the town’s Kalari Nwe neighborhood, several families evacuated their homes due to flooding, while others chose to stay overnight in a futile attempt to protect their houses from the water.
“We haven’t slept until now,” a local resident told Rudaw’s Hunar Hamid in the early hours of Friday, “Water has entered all the rooms.”
According to the woman, water levels have increased by about 50 centimeters, causing significant damage to the furniture in the house.
An elderly man told Rudaw while crying that the flood has killed around 42 of his sheep and lambs, as well as damaging the fodder warehouse.
In the footage, flood water can be seen covering the entirety of his house yard, hours after the rainstorm had already stopped.
The storm also damaged a health center in the neighborhood, partially destroying one of its walls, according to the center’s workers.
One of the security guards working at the health center said the gravity of the damage remains to be ascertained due to a power cut that plunged the building into darkness.
“The medicines are placed in higher spots, I guess they are not damaged,” he said.
Dr Niha Mohammed, the head of the health center who joined forces with the workers to mop up the remaining water, told Rudaw that a damage assessment will be carried out once power is restored.
“We will try to clean it up [the center] and resume services,” Mohammed said.
The Babagurgur Health Center, which Mohammed presides over, had already come under the impact of flooding once before in 2015.
The Kurdistan Region has witnessed a wave of torrential rain since Wednesday afternoon. Local authorities in Garmiyan and Raparin administrations declared a public holiday on Thursday due to the rain.
In the Region’s capital of Erbil, heavy rain and floods caused material damage with Erbil Defense Directorate’s spokesperson announcing that around 40 vehicles had been submerged.
Floods are a common natural calamity in Erbil, at times resulting in death and destruction. In late 2021 and early 2022, Erbil bore the brunt of heavy rainstorms that hit the Region, causing flooding affecting at least 826 families in the Kurdish capital. Twelve people were killed, including a ten-month-old baby. The Ministry of Municipality and Tourism at the time assessed that the damages amounted to more than 21 billion dinars (over $14 million).
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