Heavy rains in Sudan causes flash floods, damage

August 2, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s General Directorate of Civil Defense (GDCD), has announced that floods resulting from heavy rains, which continued for two days in a row, led to serious damages in several states.

The director of GDCD Hashim Hussein Abdel-Mageed, said in statements to the official news agency (SUNA) that the floods had cut off the road linking Atbara to Abu Hamad in the River Nile state as well as the highway in locality of Durdaib in Red Sea state, adding that the Ministry of roads and bridges is exerting huge efforts to repair the damage.

Abdel-Mageed added that flash floods have also overrun Al-Gaulid locality in the Northern state, Al-Rusairs in the Blue Nile state and North Kordofan state causing some damages, pointing out that the most affected areas in Khartoum state are the east Nile locality and Khartoum north locality.

He stressed that The Supreme Council of Civil Defense (SCCD) is working closely with the Ministry of Roads and Bridges and disclosed that several teams were deployed to the affected areas to provide aid and shelter, pointing to the efforts of the civil society organizations as well.

The director of Sudan’s General Authority for Meteorology (GAM), Abdalla Khiyar, said that large parts of the country including Khartoum state will likely witness more rainfall and thunder storms within the next 24 hours.

He told SUNA that large parts of the country have seen rains and floods within the past several hours and said that most of the rainfall was in the River Nile state, noting that Atbara registered 56 mm and Shendi 43 mm of rainfall.

Abdalla added that the heavy rains caused floods in several states including, Khartoum, Kassala, Al-Gadarif, White Nile, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile.

Heavy floods have been common in the past few years in Sudan’s east along the Blue Nile but happen more rarely in the capital and the north where much of Sudan’s population live.

(ST)