Kenyans brace for heavy El Niño rains as flood survivors recall their losses

ملخص مفصل

Kenya is expected to receive heavier-than-usual rainfall during the October–December short-rains season, influenced by El Niño conditions, according to the Kenya Meteorological…

Kenya is expected to receive heavier-than-usual rainfall during the October–December short-rains season, influenced by El Niño conditions, according to the Kenya Meteorological Service Authority

NAIROBI, Kenya -- For decades, Mary Okello has lived on the banks of a river in Kenya that floods every rainy season. But forecasts of heavier-than-usual rainfall across East Africa this autumn have sent chills down her spine, reminding her of how she lost all her belongings in 2024.

Okello was working at her hair salon when heavy rains began, forcing her to rush home and evacuate her five children. They watched as their belongings were washed away by water that eventually submerged all the houses in the area.

Since then, she says, she has had to move to higher ground in Mathare, an area of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where many residents live in houses built from corrugated iron sheets along the Mathare River, a major tributary of the Nairobi River.

Kenya's Meteorological Service Authority has warned that a super El Niño is expected to bring heavier rain from October to December, with November projected to be the peak of the season. The Kenya National Disaster Operations Centre urged people living in flood-prone areas to move to higher ground, saying 1.5 million people are at risk of being affected.

Scientists have predicted that this year’s El Niño, a temporary and natural warming of the Pacific Ocean near the equator that affects weather patterns across the globe, could be the most intense one recorded.

In Nairobi and other major towns, government agencies have mobilized workers to clear drainage systems ahead of the rains. Houses built along the Nairobi River were demolished, leaving a recommended 30-meter (98-feet) buffer zone between the river and residential areas clear.

“I always get worried when I see people rebuilding along the river,” Okello said.

George Simeka, a poultry keeper and urban farmer who used to live along the Nairobi River, remembers hearing his neighbors…

مطلع المقال، مقتطف من ABC News. لقراءة المقال كاملًا، افتحه على موقع الناشر.