Floods swept through southern Yemen after a tropical storm slammed into the country, leaving at least 58 people dead, the official SABA news agency said on Saturday. On his part, Hamid el-Kharashi, a police chief in the southern province of Hadramut, said the death toll is set to rise as scores of people are still missing and hundreds of families are homeless or trapped by the rising waters.
More than 638 houses have been demolished by the flash floods in Hadramut alone, he added, according to the AP. The tropical storm formed out in the Indian Ocean earlier in the week and headed north, hitting Yemen's remote Hadramut province on Thursday.
Damage has been extensive throughout the Hadramut province because most homes are made of mud brick.
In Shibam, a UNESCO world heritage site, the towering 16th century mud brick buildings are collapsing from the unfamiliar downpour and ensuing flash floods.
Shibam's tall, skyscraper-like mud brick houses earned it the name of "the Manhattan of the desert."
The province of Mouhra, sandwiched between Hadramut and the border with Oman to the northeast, was affected as well.
On Friday, Mouhra deputy governor, Salem Numier, said floods have cut off main roads, caused power outages. There was also a shortage in medicine and food supplies, he said.
