Kurdistan
Rescue teams searching for dead bodies of men who died in Duhok province on March 19, 2024. Date: Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The corpses of two workers who were dragged away with the rainwater during this week’s destructive flooding in Duhok remain uncounted for two days later. Their family desperately continues searching for their bodies.
A video showing two people being dragged by rainwater in Duhok province went viral on Tuesday, when torrential downpour caused flash floods that killed the two men - workers originally from federally-controlled provinces. At least 11 people were injured and hundreds others were left homeless. More than 160 houses and 50 vehicles were damaged in the natural disaster.
People who are seen trying to save the victims, their close relatives, in the video told Rudaw that they are now desperately participating in the search for the dead men’s bodies.
The victims are Mahmoud Muhanad, a newly-wed, and his 45-year-old uncle Omar Mahmoud who is survived by his two children.
Waid Mahmoud lost his brother in the incident. He told Rudaw’s Nasir Ali on Thursday that the victims initially got stuck in their vehicle and he, with the help of others, tried to rescue them by dragging them via a cord to a safe place, but the mission failed.
Omar's brother, Nawaf Mahmoud, told Rudaw that what happened to his brother and nephew was a “catastrophe.”
He called on Erbil and Baghdad to help them find the dead bodies of the victims.
Some villagers and Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) rescue teams are searching for the bodies of Mahmoud and Omar.
Heavy rains also showered the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil, with Wednesday being declared a public holiday in both Erbil and Duhok provinces.
Rising water levels during the rainy seasons of fall and winter have become a common occurrence in the Kurdistan Region in recent years, at times reaching dangerous levels and resulting in casualties and massive material damages.
A wave of deadly and destructive floods swept through the Kurdistan Region in late 2021 and early 2022, with Erbil bearing the brunt of the heavy rainstorms. At least 826 families were affected by the floods, which killed 12 people, including a ten-month-old baby.
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