The Meteorological department has Wednesday warned that flash floods are likely to occur in areas harboring the border of Ethiopia and Kenya.
In a statement, Meteorological Services Director Stella Aura said it is as a result of the expected heavy rainfall of more than 50mm/24hrs over the Ethiopian highlands.
Counties expected to be affected by the flash floods include Mandera, Marsabit, and Wajir.
Residents in the mentioned areas are alerted to be on the lookout for potential flash floods that may occur in places where heavy rainfall has not been received and especially in areas that are known to be water paths from neighboring Ethiopia.
According to the Assistant Director of Meteorological Services Dr. Richard Mwita, some of the unsafe areas are the flood plains where water may have receded during the dry weather and attracted people to set up homes or started farming activities on the fertile alluvial soils.
The weatherman is also attributing the heavy rainfall to the presence of a low-pressure belt, the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) over the East African region that is then attracting rain-bearing clouds into the region and resulting in heavy rainfall or storms.
The region is also still within the March, April to May long rains season.
This notice by MET comes a few days after Port users were advised to be cautious of bad weather along the coastline as a tropical cyclone named Jobo was expected to hit the Tanzanian coast.
In a statement released Saturday, Kenya Ports Authority said that due to low-pressure systems that developed in the South Western Indian Ocean, the cyclone was moving towards the East African coastline.
The statement which was signed by Head of Marine Operations Capt. Moses Muthama also advised that all ships in the harbor lookout for imminent bad weather and take every necessary action to secure vessels against strong winds including doubling of mooring lines.
Capt. Muthama stated that all ships at anchorage and moored to buoys should have main engines and crew on standby at short notice during this period.
He added that all ships drifting outside port limits should maintain not less than 15 nautical miles from the nearest point of land and keep crew and engines on standby.
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