10 homes in Maafaru experience flooding from heavy rain

At least 10 homes in N. Maafaru sustained damage from flooding as heavy rain lashed the island from afternoon to sunset on Friday.

Maafaru Council president Mohamed Abdul Ghani told Sun that the heavy rain began at around 02:15 pm Friday. Ghani said that the island experienced “unusually severe” flooding due to the heavy rain, prompting the council to reach out to the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) for assistance in dewatering efforts.

Ghani said that soldiers began building trenches to help ease the flooding and piling up sacks of sand at entrances of buildings at around 03:30 pm. He said that soldiers finished dewatering efforts at around 12:30 am Saturday.

Flood water seeped into 10 homes in the island, despite the efforts.

“Flood water seeped in as far as the bedrooms in some of the homes. But we haven’t received any reports of damage to property. But we believe that water damage to furniture such as wardrobes that are made of wood may mean huge losses,” said Ghani.

MNDF said it piled around 130 sacks of sand at entrances of homes in the island.

The institution said it managed to finish dewatering efforts at around 12:17 am Saturday.

The Maldives experienced widespread rain on Friday. Maldives Meteorological Service reports that the rainy conditions will continue Saturday.

The agency said that the weather will begin to clear up for a large part of the country over the next two days, but the south may continue to experience scattered rain.