‘15 minutes of rain’ damages homes, farmlands in Northern Shuneh

AMMAN — Around 600 dunums of vegetables and the furniture of 180 houses were destroyed in Northern Shuneh flashfloods caused by “15 minutes” of heavy rain on Sunday, officials said Wednesday. 

Northern Shuneh District Governor Adnan Otoum told The Jordan Times that two committees were formed to evaluate losses caused by floods: one to assess damages to households and the other to see how bad farms were affected. 

Furniture of 180 houses was severely damaged, he said, adding that the National Aid Fund and the Ministry of Interior gave JD300 in emergency aid to each family and the government will be distributing JD500 to each household. 

Otoum said a number of benefactors — individuals and societies — have expressed readiness to help the families hit by the floods. 

The governor said the committee evaluating damage to farms is still working to assess the cost of damage but indicated that 600 dunums planted with vegetables were hit hard by the floods. 

‘15 minutes of rain’

Mayor of Muath Bin Jabal Municipality Ali Dalki said the flash floods were caused by heavy rain that lasted for only 15 minutes, noting that the damage to the region, whose population is estimated at 30,000, was due to floods from surrounding mountains that swept rocks and uprooted trees in the town. 

Muath Bin Jabal is the main municipality in Northern Shuneh District and it is just 25 kilometres west of Irbid city in the Kingdom’s north. 

Dalki described the floods as beyond the capabilities of all government departments as he said that he has never witnessed such heavy rain in his 45 years of age.

“The weather that day was sunny but suddenly it turned cloudy and started to rain heavily,” he said.

The mayor said 10 cars were swept away by the floods.