Major floods hit towns in Erbil, killing one, submerging bridges

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Major floods hit different towns and villages of the Kurdistan Region’s Erbil Province following a night of heavy rainfall, killing at least one civilian and causing severe material damages to municipal infrastructure.

“The flooding led to the destruction of three bridges… damages to ten gardens, and [multiple] private farms,” read a statement by the Civil Defense Team of Sidakan, a district in Erbil Province.

The defense team also found a body which they have yet to identify and handed it over to local police.

Erbil’s Choman District experienced even stronger rainstorms, lasting several hours, with the ensuing flood submerging multiple houses and shops. At least one car was washed away, and others were damaged by the torrential downpour.

In Darband Village, the flood swept away a pickup truck parked on a bridge, damaged another vehicle, tore down the wall of a graveyard, submerged seven houses, and devastated three farms.

In Choman’s Smilan subdistrict, six shops were flooded and a bridge, which was connecting some nearby villages and Smilan with the capital town of Choman, is now out of use.

Editing by Nadia Riva