Amid Inhuman U.S. Sanctions:

Flood-Hit Areas Struggle to Emerge From Disaster

Date: 22 April 2019 - 22:18

News ID: ۶۵۱۱۶

AHVAZ, Iran (Dispatches) — Two weeks since the storms started, relentless rain and flooding throughout Iran has left some 2 million people facing a humanitarian crisis.
The deluge has swamped large swaths of the country, from the mountains in the north down to the Persian Gulf in the south.
Twenty-five out of 31 of Iran’s provinces have been affected. Officials say 76 people have been killed so far, with some 150,000 homes partially or completely destroyed. Bridges across the country and miles upon miles of road have been left unusable. Authorities say the estimated bill to repair the damage stands at least $2.5 billion.
The country's agriculture sector, which makes up about 14 percent of Iran's GDP, has been badly hit.
In the oil-rich city of Ahvaz, in Khuzestan province, a local sports stadium is now home to rows of Red Crescent tents lined up next to each other.
The aid group, the Muslim world's equivalent to the Red Cross, is working with the government to respond to the disaster.
Hussein and Farideh Abdekhani, an elderly couple whose village was consumed by the floods, have sought shelter there for the past 10 days along with their daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren.
Farideh, a seamstress, told NBC News that the family had lost everything they had worked so hard for. "Between us we had two fridges, three heaters and a television. Along with our home, it’s all gone,” she said.
"All we have left are the clothes we are wearing," she added, tugging the shirt her husband was wearing and pulling on her chador. "We have nothing. I don’t know how we are going to rebuild our lives,” she added.
In the nearby village of Hamidiyeh, farmer Jasem, 26, looked out at what was his once his livelihood.
His family had spent decades building their family home and toiling on arable land. Now they fear they will never rebuild what they have lost.
Jasem said he will move to the capital Tehran, some 600 miles from where he has spent his entire life, and try to find work in a restaurant.
Twelve percent of the country's land is agricultural, like that which once proved so fertile for Jasem and his family.
"The heads of the American regime have revealed their true vicious and inhuman nature," President Hassan Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting screened live on state TV.
The Red Crescent are doing what they can to reach these often rural communities devastated by the floods, but damaged infrastructure has hampered their mobility.
A helicopter allows them to reach Lorestan province, a mountainous region in the country's west.
Because of U.S. sanctions, Iran has been unable obtain parts for the aircraft over the last 40 years. Instead they have almost entirely rebuilt the choppers themselves.
Nasser, 81, a taxi driver in Khorramabad, the capital of Lorestan province, told NBC News: "I have lived here my whole life and have never seen anything like this."
In the city of Pol-e-dokhtar soldiers from the army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) are leading the clean-up operation.
Alongside clerics and volunteers they clear rubble, divert water, build dykes and distribute food, medicine and tents.
One of the guards at a temporary station saw a van passing by with IRGC members on board carrying shovels. "Come and get some food, terrorists,” he shouted, an apparent tongue-in-cheek reference to their recent designation as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration.
This had seemingly become an ongoing joke among the group's members.
Two women in their 60s, Sultaneh Imani and Shamsi Malekipoor, traveled from a nearby village despite being fortunate enough to escape the worst of the floods.
A few miles from Pol-e-dokhtar, the small village of Baba Zeyd has only 530 residents. Once a breadbasket for the area, rich in vegetables and crops, it is now almost entirely destroyed. Its residents were in a state of shock.
"Mother Nature cried for two weeks and we almost drowned in her tears,” said Mahin Fathi, a grandmother sitting outside the wreckage of her home.
Her neighbor, the local lawyer, was angry.
His home gone and his family's livelihood washed away, Khashayar Javadi told NBC News that the land was so badly damaged they won’t be able to sow crops or vegetables for years to come.
The government has offered small interest-free loans to help villagers rebuild their homes.
President Rouhani visited Lorestan and Khuzestan provinces on Saturday to assess relief operations and pledged to unsparingly support the affected families.
"God willing, we will stay with you until your life returns to normal. All the thoughts and efforts of the Leader (of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei) are to rebuild this region," he told locals in Pol-e-Dokhtar.
"We will also stand with you; all the Armed Forces, the Basij and the people will do," the president added.