Flash Floods Shut Down Tunis Schools, Kill Woman in Cameroon's Douala

Tunis got hit hard on Thursday, September 17. Severe thunderstorms dumped between 30 and 50 millimeters of rain on Greater Tunis in a short window, according to Euronews and africa-eye, and the city's drainage systems couldn't keep up.

The Tunis Governorate suspended afternoon classes across all public and private schools, training centers and universities starting at 3 p.m. local time, citing warning bulletins from the National Institute of Meteorology and a recommendation from the regional disaster-prevention committee, according to Al Jazeera and Ground News. Parents scrambled to pick up their kids as roads flooded and traffic locked up.

Water covered roads and sidewalks across several neighborhoods. Cars and buses got stuck, including one vehicle reportedly trapped beneath a tunnel. In the historic medina, residents ducked into shops and under awnings as water tore through the narrow streets, according to Euronews and africa-eye.

The storm knocked out power and internet in parts of the city and sent water into homes. Social media footage appeared to show power lines catching fire during the downpour, a detail reported by both Euronews and africa-eye.

Al Jazeera's Ghaya Ben Mbarek spoke to residents who described the chaos firsthand. Fatma, a 35-year-old Tunis employee, said the tunnel leading to Bab Saadoun shut down completely and people waited hours for buses that never showed. "I saw three cars that filled with water and broke down, and people carrying their children on their shoulders," she told Al Jazeera. "Every season, the same thing happens. Roads close and traffic comes to a complete standstill."

Another resident, Intissar, 33, from the Lafayette area, put the blame on local authorities for not doing preventive maintenance before the rainy season. "This is work that should have been done during the summer," she told Al Jazeera. She also pointed a finger at her neighbors, acknowledging "the responsibility of citizens who dump waste that blocks drainage channels."

Government officials reportedly discussed drainage problems at a meeting in August, according to Al Jazeera, but whatever came out of that meeting didn't stop the same flooding from happening again a month later. Either the fixes weren't made, weren't enough, or the storm simply outran whatever capacity the system has.

Tunisia recorded its heaviest rainfall in more than seven decades this past January, when at least five people died, according to Euronews. Thursday's storm arrived after a summer of prolonged heatwaves, a sequence that keeps stressing infrastructure that residents say hasn't been upgraded to handle it.

Cameroon's Douala Sees a Death

The same week, heavy rain slammed Douala, Cameroon's economic capital, leaving the city's 5th district underwater by early Friday morning, September 18, according to Africanews.

A pregnant woman died of electrocution after floodwater reached her home overnight. Neighbors told Africanews they heard her on the phone around 9 p.m. Thursday and then nothing. "A neighbor told me that if she was there at 9pm, she must still be there, because she wasn't the type to sleep just anywhere or anyhow," one neighbor said. Her husband tried calling, couldn't reach her, then pushed open the kitchen door and found the body. Firefighters removed her.

Residents described water rising fast. "Around 2am, I woke up to relieve myself. I put my feet on the floor and realized the water was up to my knees," one resident told Africanews. "By the time I reached the living room, the water was already up to my thighs."

Motorists and pedestrians couldn't reach the city center Friday morning. One woman told Africanews she'd been waiting in her car since 7 a.m., unsure whether to push forward or turn back.

Cameroon's meteorological service is warning residents to brace for even heavier rainfall in the coming days, according to Africanews. The full extent of the damage in Douala hasn't been tallied yet.

What's Left Unanswered

No Tunisian government official has publicly detailed what specific drainage repairs were completed, or skipped, since the August meeting Al Jazeera referenced. No death toll or damage estimate has been released for Thursday's Tunis flooding. And Cameroonian authorities haven't said whether the Douala death will trigger any inquiry into the district's flood defenses. Both cities now face the same forecast: more rain is coming, and neither has shown it's built for it.