At least four people have died in northern Morocco after flash floods caused by Storm Marta swept away a car, local authorities said on Sunday. The victims included three children aged 2 to 14 and a man in his 30s, who perished in a village near Tétouan, approximately 270 kilometres north of Rabat. Another person remains missing, and an investigation has been launched.
The storm, named Marta, brought up to 92 millimetres of rain to some northern cities over the weekend, according to Houssine Youabed of Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology. The system also affected neighbouring Spain and Portugal.
Days earlier, Storm Leonardo had hit northern Africa and the Iberian peninsula, overfilling dams and rivers in Morocco. That storm damaged homes and crops, triggered minor landslides, and forced more than 150,000 people to evacuate.
Despite the destruction, officials noted that the turbulent weather has secured at least a year’s supply of drinking water for Morocco and boosted resources for the country’s critical agricultural sector, providing relief after a yearslong drought.
