Morocco evacuates more than 50,000 people from flooding in Ksar el-Kebir

More than 50,000 people in Ksar el-Kebir, in Morocco's Larache Province, were evacuated as flooding threatened the city. Heavy rain and controlled dam releases caused the Loukkos River to overflow. Schools were suspended. Power cuts and military rescue operations spread across nearby areas.

An evacuation of this scale moves tens of thousands of residents out of reach of rising water. The figure was given as more than 50,000, so it was not a precise head count. Ksar el-Kebir is the city named, and Larache Province is the jurisdiction. The report said flooding threatened the city after weeks of heavy rain.

Controlled dam releases are deliberate discharges of water from reservoirs. In this account they combined with rain to push the Loukkos over its banks. The report did not name the dams or give the volume of water released. It did connect those releases to the overflow that prompted the evacuation.

School suspensions and power cuts were listed beside the rescue effort. Military units took part in rescues in nearby areas, not only inside the city. The account did not give a death toll for the floods. It also did not say how long residents would remain away from their homes.

Weeks of heavy rain were the lead-up described in the report, rather than a single cloudburst. That duration helps explain why dams were releasing water and why a river city faced an overflow. The response combined civilian disruption, in closed schools and lost power, with military rescue. No count of damaged houses was stated.

The evacuation of more than 50,000 people from Ksar el-Kebir was the central fact of the Moroccan flooding. The Loukkos overflowed after heavy rain and controlled dam releases. Schools stopped, power failed, and soldiers joined rescues nearby. No fatality figure accompanied those details.