Victims of the heavy rains that flooded a number of cities and villages in North Sinai staged protests in Arish on Sunday against the government's failure to competently deal with the crisis. Protesters claimed that local Municipal Council President Gaber el-Arabi had threatened to arrest them if they continued to demonstrate. Units from the armed forces continue to pump water from flooded villages. Nevertheless, many residents have been unable to obtain blankets from relief convoys because they were unable to show their national identification cards. "Why must I show my ID to get a blanket?" asked local resident and flood victim Rabab Mabrouk. "I lost it in the floods, along with all my other belongings." In the southern city of Aswan, meanwhile, the governor said he would provide alternative housing for all flood victims within 45 days. According to an official report on material damage sustained in Aswan, 1246 homes--mostly of mud-brick--collapsed, along with 150 electricity towers, although most of the latter have already been repaired. Additionally, more than 100 acres of cultivated land were flooded and some 130 heads of cattle killed as a result of the flooding. In the northern province of Damietta, MP Omran Megahid submitted an interpellation to the prime minister, demanding that governors of the stricken provinces tender their resignations since they had been warned by Slums Development Authority President Tarek el-Faramawy in June of last year that this winter would likely see torrential rainfall. Megahid went on to call for the formation of a ministry solely devoted to crisis management and for the legal prosecution of all those responsible for mismanagement of the disaster. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
