At least eight people have lost their lives after floods on the island of São Vicente in Cape Verde, which submerged emergency services and cut off key roads, a regional councillor for civil protection said on Tuesday. On Monday morning, torrential rains fell on this island in the north of the Atlantic archipelago off the coast of West Africa, flooding the roads and carrying away vehicles and people. The municipal councilor José Carlos da Luz declared to a public channel that seven people had died in the floods and another had been electrocuted, adding that three people were still missing. In a report published on Monday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies indicated that the death toll was nine and that 1 500 people had been displaced on the island of São Vicente. “Situation is rare”. São Vicente usually receives 116 millimetres (mm) of rain per year, according to the Institute of Meteorology of Cape Verde. But early Monday morning, 193 mm fell in only five hours, declared Ester Brito, a responsible of the institute.
Cape Verde: At least eight dead following floods on the island of São Vicente
