Flash floods wreaked havoc across the small Mediterranean island of Malta after a month’s worth of rain fell in just a few hours.
Roads were closed, vehicles swept away and buildings damaged. The Civil Protection Department appealed for people to avoid flooded areas.
Teams from Malta’s civil protection, police and military carried rescued several people trapped in flood water. Two civil protection officers got into difficulty while rescuing a man trapped in his car in Burmarrad and had to be airlifted to safety by an Armed Forces of Malta helicopter. Four people took refuge on the roof of a vehicles trapped in flood waters in Salina before they were eventually rescued.
Local media, quoting figures from the country’s meteorological agency, said “an average of 74.6mm of rain fell, with one weather station in Selmun measuring 107.6mm in 24 hours. That’s above the norm for the entire month of November, when an average rainfall of 90mm is recorded.”
Social Media
Malta being hit by torrential rain as cars are carried away by raging floodwaters pic.twitter.com/UKnHWUHJIW
— Stephen Cachia🇲🇹🇪🇸♥️ (@stecac) November 25, 2021
#Malta Bad weather #catastrophe and the #island is submerged by water pic.twitter.com/GYdbfSATZl
— Donato Yaakov Secchi (@doyaksec) November 25, 2021
