Heavy downpours in Yemen’s Wasab Safil district forced a dam to burst, the Interior Ministry said, citing witnesses, killing nine people. Scattered floods throughout Yemen’s northwest region brought rocks tumbling down from hilltops onto buildings. Several homes and a hospital collapsed, killing at least seven. Four people were injured and several remained trapped under the rubble of the hospital, Interior Ministry said.

Yemen’s Civilian Defense Center said the total death toll stood at 23, including some who drowned as flash floods swept through the streets and trapped drivers in their cars.

The heavy rains have also isolated villages in southwest Saudi Arabia, near the Yemeni border, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan said.

One person was reported dead in the Kingdom, according to the Arabic daily. In Jizan, a Civil Defense team is searching for a man believed washed away by floodwaters after his brother’s body was found.

Defense forces had responded to 100 calls for assistance from people stuck in their cars as floods hit, it said.

[http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article85443.ece]

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14 dead in southern Saudi Arabia floodingJuly 25, 2010 Daily Times

RIYADH: Fourteen people were killed and one is still missing after flash floods hit several mountainous districts of southern Saudi Arabia, civil defence officials said on Saturday.

Rescue teams also helped some 440 people threatened by the flooding after days of heavy rain in Asir, Jizan, Najran and Taif, the country’s civil defence said in a statement. “Three bodies were recovered” in Najran, civil defence chief Saad al-Tuwaijri said in the statement, adding that another six people died in Jizan, four in Asir and one in Taif. Another person was reported missing.

The authorities were using helicopters to ferry emergency supplies of food, water, and medicine to the stricken areas because the flooding had washed away some roads. “We are watching the situation closely, and we are ready to deal with any emergency incidents and to send more relief materials to areas inaccessible by ground units,” Tuwaijri said.

[http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\07\25\story_25-7-2010_pg4_3, July 25, 2]