UPDATE - Algeria floods kill 298 people
Date: 12-Nov-01
Country: ALGERIA
"It is a real national catastrophe," said Interior Minister Noureddine Zerhouni, adding that the cabinet would hold a crisis meeting yesterday to assess the disaster and consider a plan to provide aid to at least 5,500 homeless families.
Zerhouni called for international aid to help the North African country cope with the disaster.
"According to a provisional toll, the floods claimed the lives of 298 people and left 294 people wounded. Eight others were reported missing," the official news agency APS said.
Rescue workers said they expected the death toll to rise as rescuers and army soldiers searched in the rubble of houses that collapsed under heavy rains last week and Saturday.
Officials said the capital Algiers with a population of 3.5 million people was the worst hit by the flooding, which washed away roads and uprooted trees and power poles.
APS said the flooding killed 224 people in the city. Rescue workers said at least 60 of them died in the working-class Bab el Oued neighbourhood in central Algiers.
"Bab el Oued was the most damaged area in Algiers as the neighbourhood is located at the foot of a hill. Water streamed down the hill and swamped the area," one resident said.
The rescue workers reported deaths in three other provinces affected by the flooding.
BUSINESSES CLOSED
Rail services were halted and almost all government offices and businesses closed on the weekend, a working day in Algeria, as rising waters prevented people from leaving their homes.
Many of the victims were crushed under the rubble of their homes. Others drowned, died in road accidents or were hit by falling trees, residents and rescue workers said.
Officials said it was too early to assess the damage to the country's basic infrastructure, but the floods were likely to compound the country's housing crisis as many were made homeless.
Parliament, due to debate the government's policy record over the past 12 months, also closed as most deputies were unable to reach the building in central Algiers, members said.
Among the dead reported so far outside the capital, five people died in the Tipaza area 60 km (40 miles) west of Algiers and at least one died in the Western city of Oran, about 360 km (225 miles) from Algiers, rescue workers said.
Three others lost their lives in Ain Temouchent, 410 km west of Algiers, they added.
Meteorologists, who are forecasting that the rains will continue until Wednesday, said strong gales of up to 120 km per hour (75 mph) made the situation worse.
"It was the worst flooding in at least the last two decades," one meteorologist said.
