Storm Marta kills at least 4 in Morocco as the country battles floods
RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Storm-triggered flash floods in northern Morocco killed at least four people as the country grappled with days of heavy rain and releases of water from overfilled dams that forced mass evacuations, local authorities said Sunday.
Three children – a girl and two boys aged between 2 and 14 – and a man in his 30s died in a car that was swept away in a village near Tetouan, about 270 kilometers north of the capital Rabat, according to an Interior Ministry statement citing local authorities. Another person remains missing.
Local authorities announced they would open an investigation into what happened.
The flash floods were caused by a storm system known as Marta, which swept through Morocco over the weekend and dumped up to 92 millimeters (3.6 inches) of rain on some northern towns, Houssine Youabed of Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology told The Associated Press. Storm Marta also reached neighboring Spain and Portugal.
A few days earlier, another storm, Leonardo, hit North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. In Morocco, it overflowed dams and rivers, damaging homes and crops, causing minor landslides and forcing more than 150,000 people to evacuate.
The weather turbulence also ensured Morocco had at least a year’s supply of drinking water and bolstered resources for the country’s critical agricultural sector, officials said, providing relief after a year-long drought.
