British tourist, 6 others killed in rare torrential Middle East storms and flooding

January 19, 2010|Associated Press

CAIRO - Rare torrential rains across the Middle East swept away homes, marooned resort towns, and killed seven people yesterday, including a British tourist, in what officials are calling the worst flooding in at least a decade.

The flooding along Egypt’s Red Sea coast, the border with Israel, and in the south left six people dead.

It also damaged the roads leading to the resorts in the Sinai desert and brought down telephone and power lines.

Israel temporarily closed its southern border crossings with Egypt and Jordan, while Jordanians were warned off the streets after nearly a dozen accidents in one area.

Rains of this magnitude, which began Sunday night, are rare in this largely arid region and where heavy precipitation can result in sudden and deadly flash floods.

A British tourist sailing down the Nile near the southern Egyptian city of Aswan died when his sail boat capsized in the heavy winds and sudden rain. His wife and two companions, a Canadian and an Indian, survived, said Major General al-Shafei Hassan, chief of criminal investigation in the southern city of Aswan.

The heavy rains also washed away a dozen mud brick homes in southern Egypt and killed two women. Scores of families in Aboul-Rish village in Aswan slept outdoors after their homes were destroyed.

In the famed monument city of Luxor, bad weather caused power failures in several neighborhoods and disrupted Nile cruises, sailboat, and ferry schedules.

The heavy rains also killed a woman in Ras Sudr.