WATANI International
24 January 2010
At least seven people were killed and hundreds displaced by rain-induced flash floods on 18 January in the Sinai Peninsula, the Red Sea port of Hurghada and Aswan.
In Aswan, about 800km south of Cairo, floods that swept through five villages washed away around 41 mud brick homes killing two women. Government rescue workers evacuated residents and offered them shelter in nearby youth centres and in open fields. The rescue workers also managed to put out fires that broke out in some homes. A British tourist was killed when a yacht capsized in bad weather on the Nile, the police said.
In the Sinai Peninsula, northeastern Egypt, at least two people died, more than a dozen were missing and dozens of houses were destroyed. “The flooding forced rescue workers to use boats to move around,” Abdel Fadil Shousha, governor of South Sinai, said.
Flooding blocked main roads in the resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh and heavy rains brought down the ceiling in a part of the airport.
Until ++Watani++ went to press, more than a dozen people are missing in the resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh.
Flash floods overcame dams in northern Sinai, wiped out communication lines in Sharm el-Sheik, and destroyed two dozen homes in Ras Sudr.
In the Red-sea port of Hurghada a woman drowned when flooding swept her off the main road.
Israel temporarily closed its border crossings with Egypt and Jordan due to the heavy rains, and a bridge collapsed near a cargo crossing between Egypt and Israel.
Five Egyptian ports were closed due to the unpredictable weather.
The flooding was the worst to hit Sinai since January 1994.