CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP) — Floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 37 people in the Moroccan coastal city of Safi, the Interior Ministry said Monday.
Authorities said heavy rain and flash floods overnight inundated about 70 homes and businesses and swept away 10 vehicles. The Interior Ministry reported 14 people hospitalized.
Local outlets reported that schools announced three days of closures. Rains also caused flooding and damage elsewhere throughout Morocco, including the northern city of Tetouan and the mountain town of Tinghir.
Safi, a city on Morocco’s Atlantic shore more than 320 kilometers (200 miles) from the capital, Rabat, is a major hub for the country’s critical fishing and mining industries. Both employ thousands to catch, mine and process the commodities for export. The city, with a population of more than 300,000 people, is home to a major phosphate processing plant.
Videos shared on social media showed cars stranded and partially submerged as floodwaters surged through Safi’s streets.
Climate change has made weather patterns more unpredictable in Morocco. North Africa has been plagued by several years of drought, hardening soils and making mountains, deserts and plains more susceptible to flooding. Last year, floods in normally arid mountains and desert areas killed nearly two dozen people in Morocco and Algeria.
This week’s floods came after 22 people were killed in a two-building collapse in the Moroccan city of Fez. Morocco has invested in disaster risk initiatives although local governments often do not enforce building codes and drainage systems can be lacking in some cities. Infrastructural inequities were a focus of youth-led protests that swept the country earlier this year.
“This is a disaster, I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime,” Khalil Sidki, 67, a Safi resident and member of the local branch of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights, told The Associated Press.
He said the flooding caught people by surprise in a commercial area. In reaction, many shopkeepers locked themselves inside their stores, but as water levels climbed up to 4 meters (13 feet), shops were submerged, killing those trapped inside, he said. Another Safi resident described similar scenes.
Moroccan authorities launched an investigation into the cause of the flooding. Safi received 46 millimeters (less than 2 inches) of rainfall over 24 hours — a level Houcine Youabid from Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology described as “normal” for the region. He said infrastructure issues could have combined with the rainfall to contribute to the flooding.
Parts of the North African nation experienced heavy rain and snow over the weekend, and authorities issued alerts for similar conditions throughout the coming days.
__ Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.
