Erbil got 80 mm of rain against 30 mm forecast, governor says after floods

ERBIL — Erbil was forecast to get about 30 millimeters of rain in Saturday’s storm, but preliminary estimates show that about 80 millimeters fell, setting off the floods that killed two people in the city, Governor Omed Khoshnaw said Sunday.

“Erbil city was hit by a wave of heavy rain that caused widespread flooding in a number of neighborhoods, resulting in serious damage to citizens’ homes and shops,” Khoshnaw said in remarks published Sunday.

Preparations for the rainy season began in September, he said. By Sunday the rain had stopped, most of the damage from the floods had been brought under control and service crews were clearing the roads.

The floods killed a 5-year-old child and a loader driver. The driver, a 25-year-old volunteer, was using his loader to rescue residents between the highway and the New Erbil neighborhood when the water swept him away, Khoshnaw said. The child was in a car with their father when the floodwater carried it off. The father survived, but the child drowned.

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani had followed the situation closely from the start and phoned to ask about the extent of the damage and the steps taken, the governor said.

A man who survived the flood under the Shorsh overpass, near the Jalil Khayat Mosque, told 964media that rainwater suddenly built up there until the road under the bridge was full. His car and several others were swallowed by the water, he said. He climbed out through the car’s sunroof, swam to the side of the road and was pulled to safety with a rope.

About 15 cars were still under the overpass on Sunday, he said, and what became of them may be clear only once the water goes down.

At Langa Market, one of the city’s busiest markets, between the 40-Meter and 100-Meter roads, traders went back early Sunday and waded through the mud to clean their goods. Floodwater left thick mud across the market, and the clothes in many shops were caked in it, a 964media correspondent reported.

Three sections of the market took the worst of the damage. Some shopkeepers lost goods worth as much as $10,000, while others put their losses at 1 million or 2 million dinars (about $600 to $1,200 at the street rate), the correspondent said. A resident who had come to help called on the municipality to step in.

Most of the flooded shops had burned in earlier fires. Fire swept through the market twice in two months in 2024, and in October 2025 the Erbil Municipality began a 144-million-dinar renovation (about $102,000 at the time) that included a canopy over the stalls.

Shopkeeper Ali Qasim told 964media his loss was at least 4 million dinars (about $2,400). “We had just brought in our goods, and the vast majority of them were ruined,” he said.

“Only the two or three lanes that had burned two or three times before were hit by the flood. At mine, about 4 million dinars’ worth of clothes and bags were damaged,” said Ibrahim Nafiz, another shopkeeper.

Rain from Friday night into Saturday had already flooded homes, markets and streets in Erbil and Kirkuk. On Saturday, lightning killed a livestock trader in Zakho and four members of one family died in a crash on a rain-slicked road near Rashad, on the highway between Kirkuk and Salah al-Din. Khoshnaw declared Sunday a holiday at every educational institution in Erbil. Also on Sunday, the Erbil Water Directorate shut the city’s drinking water treatment plants because the river water was too muddy to treat.

The Iraqi Meteorological Organization and Seismology forecast light to moderate showers in the north on Sunday and relatively stable, clear weather from Monday.