Severe weather causes MVR 1.4 million in damages in Malé City

Malé City Council has revealed that the strong monsoon activities that continues to wreak havoc across the Maldives, has caused damages worth MVR 1.4 million in the Maldives capital.

Joining the press briefing at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) on Friday night, the city mayor, Shifa Mohamed revealed that damages incurred due to the southwest monsoon have reached about MVR 1.4 million in Malé City alone.

Strong winds and torrential rains across the Maldives have uprooted trees, torn off roofs and flooded the streets of a scatter of regions across the island nation including the capital and southernmost Addu City as well as Fuvahmulah City and outlying islands.

Some of the parks and public spaces such as Rasfannu Beach have also been damaged due to the monsoon activities.

These parks have been closed off due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the city council does not plan to open them up any time soon, said Shifa, who stressed that opening up public spaces might result in a surge of Covid-19 cases as authorities anticipated earlier.

As the Maldives has entered the first phase of easing the lockdown order implemented on April 15, discussions are underway to reopen public parks, however, this will not be done in the first phase, said the city council.

This is being done for the safety of all, said the mayor.

However Shifa noted that work is currently underway to clean the parks which have been contaminated due to the adverse weather.

It was earlier reported that trees had fallen near the cemetery in Henveiru-ward of the capital, Maaveyo Magu, the Voice of Maldives, Koththu Hut near the presidential residence Muleeaage and the Villimalé Ferry Terminal due to strong winds. Wind storms also ripped off roofs of a few households in the Maldives capital as well as Fuvahmulah City. Floods had also incurred damage to household property in Addu City.

Several officers of the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) are being deployed to assist residents of outlying atolls experiencing the impacts of the squally weather, such as flooding.

The monsoon season provokes several such incidents throughout the island nation each year, and this year it falls at a time authorities are battling the global pandemic.