Mahmoud Muhanad, was one of the two victims swept away by flood water when torrential rain battered the city last week. His body was not retrieved and while his mother has lost hope, she asks, with tears filling her eyes, to find his missing body.
"I am aware that my son has passed away. His spirit drifted away as he drowned. His yet-to-be-born son is now fatherless, and I am left without joy. My son's death occurred while he was in the prime of his life as a groom,” his mother, known as Um Mahmoud, told Rudaw’s Haydar Doski on Tuesday.
“I requested assistance from the authorities to find out the location of his body, to bury him,” she said.
Mahmoud was a newly-wed and his mother laments that he will never have the chance to meet his unborn child.
She recalled her final moments with her son before he left the house that day.
“He was joking about it that morning as if he knew he was not coming back,” she said.
Mahmoud’s uncle, Omar, was killed in the floods on March 19.
Omar has three children, while Mahmoud never had the chance to experience fatherhood. Although his son is due to be born in a few months, he will grow up without a father.
Efforts to locate the flood victims in Duhok province's Zakho are ongoing, following the devastation of numerous houses and vehicles, along with significant material losses.
Ari Jalal, the head of the Dohuk photographers' association, mentioned that they've been actively seeking the victims for several days and have employed 12 drones to aid in the search efforts.
Last week's torrential downpour caused flash floods that killed three people in Duhok, with the bodies of two of the victims remaining unaccounted for.
At least 11 other people were injured and hundreds of others were left homeless. More than 160 houses and 50 vehicles were damaged in the natural disaster.
Heavy rains also showered the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil, with last Wednesday being declared a public holiday in both Erbil and Duhok provinces.
Rising water levels during the rainy seasons of fall and winter have become common in the Kurdistan Region in recent years, at times reaching dangerous levels and resulting in casualties and massive material damage.
