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Flash floods linked to storm Marta killed at least four people in northern Morocco on Sunday and left another person missing, the country’s Interior Ministry said as authorities struggled with days of heavy rain and water releases from full dams. The deaths included three children and a man in his 30s, Interior Ministry officials said, citing local authorities as they coordinated evacuations in affected areas.
According to a statement from the Interior Ministry, three children — a girl and two boys aged 2 to 14 — died in a car that was swept away in a village near Tétouan, about 270 kilometers (168 miles) north of the capital Rabat. Authorities also said a man in his 30s died in the same incident, and that another person remained missing.
Local authorities said they would open an investigation into the incident and what led to the car being swept away. The Interior Ministry’s statement also framed the broader flooding as part of the impacts from storm Marta as it moved through northern Morocco over the weekend.
A meteorology official said the flooding was driven by storm Marta, which dumped heavy rainfall on parts of northern Morocco. Houssine Youabed of Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology told The Associated Press that some northern cities received up to 92 millimeters (3.6 inches) of rain, and that storm Marta also reached neighboring Spain and Portugal.
The flooding followed another storm system, Leonardo, that struck northern Africa and parts of the Iberian peninsula days earlier. In Morocco, officials said Leonardo overfilled dams and rivers, damaged homes and crops, triggered minor landslides, and forced more than 150,000 people to evacuate.
Despite the destruction, Moroccan officials said the turbulent weather also helped address water scarcity. They said the storms secured at least a year’s supply of drinking water for the country and boosted resources for agriculture, offering relief after yearslong drought.
Local conditions remained unstable as authorities dealt with ongoing rainfall effects and the consequences of releasing water from dams that were already carrying high levels. The Associated Press reported that mass evacuations were carried out as the flooding unfolded, with emergency response continuing as the search for the missing person and the investigation into the fatalities got underway.