Tehran: Floods spawned by the remnants of Cyclone Gonu stranded dozens of tiny villages in the deserts of southern Iran yesterday, cutting off roads, power and communications and sending some residents into trees for safety.
Water encircled more than 100 villages deep in Kerman province, where many residents subsist on livestock and small farm plots in villages consisting of a handful of families.
Lieutenant Siamak Miladi, a police commander in the town of Kalaganj, said rescue workers were expected to reach many villages by helicopter today.
"Power and telephone lines were affected by the flood there, so we do not have any access to them for the time being," he told AP in a telephone interview.
Flooding also swamped dozens of villages in Sistan and Baluchistan province, where the state news agency said some inhabitants had climbed up onto treetops. The floodwaters drove out the residents of Shahrestan village, near the port city of Chahbahar, according to the official Irna.
"Some of them are living in trees," villager Slamcq Hood told Irna. "Since the beginning of the storm on Wednesday we have not received any relief assistance." Iran's meteorological office said the storm had become a high-pressure system creating rainshowers and wind in southeastern Iran.
Iranian state TV's web site said two government workers taking emergency supplies to a flooded area were killed on Wednesday when a river overflowed and flipped their truck in Jask. A third Iranian died in Bandar Abbas from a car accident blamed on low visibility.
