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Watch: Cars carried away by floodwaters as month’s worth of rain pelts Malta
Watch: Cars carried away by floodwaters as month’s worth of rain pelts Malta
People trapped in cars, homes flooded, walls collapse
Flash floods carried away cars, collapsed walls and trapped motorists in their submerged vehicles after a month’s worth of rain fell in a matter of hours on Thursday.
Police and army units were deployed as roads turned into rivers, leading to multiple water rescues and road closures throughout the day.
An overwhelmed Civil Protection Department appealed for people to avoid valleys and areas close to the sea. There were no reports of fatalities.
But two of their own officers had to be rescued by an Armed Forces of Malta helicopter as they got into difficulty rescuing an elderly man trapped in his car in Burmarrad. All three were airlifted to safety.
In another dramatic scene, a family of four was stranded on the roof of their taxi in Salina as the water rose around them. Eventually they had to use a rope to wade across to safety.
A woman is carried on the back of a Civil Protection Department officer in a rescue in Salina. Photo: Jonathan Borg“Reports indicate that this is one of the worst storms we have had in a long time,” said the CPD, who doubled its officers on duty to cope with “the influx of calls for assistance”.
Initially the CPD focussed its entire operation on rescue work, but by Thursday evening, a clean-up operation began and it started responding to non-urgent calls.
The flooding causing traffic jams on the Coast Road. Photo: Jonathan BorgThe Met Office issued an amber weather warning in the morning and revealed that an average of 74.6mm of rain fell, with one weather station in Selmun measuring 107.6mm in 24 hours.
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“Significant Slowdown” Spooks Maersk At Mediterranean’s Third Largest Port
“Significant Slowdown” Spooks Maersk At Mediterranean’s Third Largest Port
Malta Freeport, the third largest transshipment port in the Mediterranean region and located on the island of Malta, has seen a “significant slowdown in business activity” since 2H18.
One of its major clients, Maersk, the largest container ship and supply vessel operator in the world, has decided to move its operations from Malta to other ports in North Africa after Mediterranean shipping routes have been severely affected by the synchronized global slowdown.
The Times of Malta reported that Freeport’s management notified unions and other clients that Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) will be shifting operations from Malta to other African ports, is expected to reduce business at Malta’s container terminal by 35% next month.
Last year’s figures show the port handled 3.3 million containers in its transshipment activities, but with Maersk and MSC halting operations, that number is expected to be dramatically less.
A spokesman for Freeport confirmed to the Times of Malta that Maersk and MSC have departed.
“Maersk recently informed us that it will be shifting some of the services that are being carried out through Malta Freeport to a new fully-automated facility in Tangier Med, Morocco, and to Port Said in Egypt.”
Maersk has been operating from Malta for at least a decade, handling import shipping routes to and from China.
Industry sources said shipping volumes have already decreased at Freeport, as a severe economic slowdown in Europe and Asia have sent container rates between both regions into a tailspin in the last several quarters.
“The slowdown can already be felt and there are already fewer people working, particularly on overtime,” the source said.
Last month, data from the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis revealed world trade volume fell 1.8% in the three months to January compared to the preceding three months as a global slowdown gained momentum.
