Flash floods kill 37 in Moroccan coastal town, 1006 killed in Indonesia

The death toll from flash floods that hit the Moroccan coastal town of Safi over the weekend rose to 37, local authorities said Monday.Devastating floods and landslides have killed 1,006 people in Indonesia, rescuers said Saturday as the Southeast Asian nation grapples with the huge scale of relief efforts.

The disaster, which has hit the northwestern island of Sumatra over the past fortnight, has also injured more than 5,400, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said.

The deadly torrential rains are one of the worst recent disasters to strike Sumatra, where a tsunami wreaked havoc in 2004 in the northern tip of the island.

“Fourteen people are currently being treated at Mohammed V hospital in Safi, including two in intensive care,” local authorities added in their statement.

Search and rescue operations continued on Monday, after the deadliest such severe weather event in Morocco in over a decade.

Images on social media showed a torrent of muddy water sweeping cars and rubbish bins from the streets in Safi, which sits around 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of the capital Rabat.

Severe weather and flooding are not uncommon in Morocco, which is struggling with a severe drought for the seventh consecutive year.

The General Directorate of Meteorology (DGM) said 2024 was Morocco’s hottest year on record, while registering an average rainfall deficit of -24.7 percent.

Moroccan autumns are typically marked by a gradual drop in temperatures, but climate change has affected weather patterns and made storms more intense because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture and warmer seas can turbocharge the systems.

Flash floods killed hundreds in Morocco in 1995.