Morocco Quake Survivors Face New Crisis as Floods Destroy Tent Camps

"All the tents have been destroyed. We found ourselves homeless again. We had warned, but no one listened to us," The New Arab said Mouhssin, a 30-year-old resident of the Douar Douzrou village, near Taroudant. This man lost his pregnant wife, his mother and a close friend in the violent earthquake that shook part of Morocco. He still managed to save his son after spending five hours digging with his bare hands. He now says his heart can no longer bear the tragedy.

Amezmiz, another region affected by the earthquake, is facing floods after the heavy rain on Saturday. A camp of hundreds of villagers who had taken refuge in the region was flooded. "In the middle of the night, the water started seeping into the tents. Everything I had saved from my house is now in ruins," said Najat, a mother of three, in despair. The camp residents say they had reported the problem to the authorities before the rain, but were told to dig tunnels around their tents and stay inside.

On Sunday, the local authorities came to the aid of the population. "Waterproof tents" were distributed in the villages near Marrakech. They also plan to build a network of canals to drain the rainwater from the camps. In the eyes of the villagers, the waterproof tents do not constitute a sustainable alternative, as they fear the worst with the arrival of the snow season. Every year, in November, violent snowstorms block the roads of the isolated villages of the Atlas, isolating for weeks more than 1,000 villages, without access to electricity, hospitals and schools, it is specified.

If the villagers were able to withstand the weather conditions in recent decades, they will not be able to cope with the snow season this year, as they are now homeless. "Facing the snow season this year without shelter will be a new tragedy for the earthquake-affected region," the villagers say.