20,000 homeless after torrential rain in Yemen

In late October 2008 the third tropical cyclone of the season caused heavy rains and flash floods in Yemen. The floods have killed about 100 persons and left approximately 20 000 people homeless. The most affected region suffering from severe damages to infrastructure, houses and farm land is the Say'un district with an estimated 75% of buildings destroyed or severely damaged. On October 28, 2008, UN OCHA ROMENACA triggered the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' through UN OOSA for a damage assessment to better coordinate their relief activities in this region. DLR ZKI took over the role of the Charter Project Management and realised the damage mapping. The population distribution map of the affected region was provided to ZKI by courtesy of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission through the project LIMES.