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The floods in the Kurdish semi-autonomous capital region are also causing material damage, the governor said.
At least eight people have been killed and several injured in heavy rains in Erbil, a semi-autonomous Kurdish capital in northern Iraq, authorities said.
Provincial Governor Omid Khoshnaw said on Friday that women and children were among the dead after heavy nights crossed some residential areas.
“The floods also caused significant material losses,” he said in a statement.
Rudaw local news outlet mentioned Khoshnaw said seven people were killed in the floods and another was killed by lightning.
Several other people were reported injured, while the number of injured and the extent of the damage were still being assessed.
Civil Defense spokesman Sarkawt Karach said many people had to leave their homes. “Searches for missing people are being carried out,” Karach said, warning that the death toll could rise.
Erbilen, reports say, dumped muddy water from the roads. Buses, trucks and cisterns were swept away by stormwater, and some fell to the side.
Khoshnaw called residents if it was not necessary to stay home, and warned that more rain was expected for fear of further flooding.
It has been hit by a series of Iraq attacks extreme weather events. It has withstood blisters repeated droughts in recent years, but it has also experienced severe flooding, which has worsened as rain has fallen on the scorched earth.
Hard ground, plus the loss of vegetation, means that the soil does not absorb water so quickly, and when it is hit by a storm, it can soon become flooded.
Scientists say climate change is exacerbating extreme weather, including droughts, as well as increasing the intensity of rainstorms.
Experts warn that low rains, coupled with climate change, are threatening social and economic catastrophe in war-torn Iraq.
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