Crisis Manager of Mashhad Municipality Dismissed After Denying Flood

On Friday, May 18, Iranian media reported that following an order from the governor and head of the crisis management committee of Razavi Khorasan province, the crisis manager of Mashhad municipality was dismissed due to what was referred to as "recent controversies." Previously, an audio file attributed to Hassan Khalidari, head of the non-combat defense and crisis management group of Mashhad municipality, was published in the newspaper "Khorasan," where he denied the occurrence of a flood in Mashhad. This municipal official claimed: "No, no, no. There is no flood. It’s just minor waterlogging." In response to a reporter's comments about videos of the flood circulating in the media, he said: "No way, it’s not like that. The water took away cardboard cars, not people’s iron cars." His statements drew criticism from social media users. Meanwhile, Zeynab Rahimi, an environmental journalist in Iran, wrote on social media X that "the governor of Torbat Heydarieh has threatened the people that anyone who creates fear about the flood will be dealt with." Meanwhile, the latest reports indicate that the death toll from the flood in Razavi Khorasan province has risen to 8. Reza Abbasi Nishabouri, head of the crisis management of Razavi Khorasan governorate, told the Islamic Republic Radio and Television that the body of a 70-year-old man from the village of "Sargahyeh," who was caught in the flood on Wednesday, May 26, was recovered from the mud near the village of Hassanabad. According to this report, 5 people died during the flood in the city of Mashhad. The website "Khabar Online" reported on Friday: "The complete unpreparedness of the municipality and fire department despite the weather warnings on the day of the incident was very evident." Khabar Online added: "In Enghelab Square, safety measures and necessary precautions to prevent the crisis were not taken, and with the blockage of the old waterway in that area, the flood entered the square." The damage and casualties caused by the flood in Razavi Khorasan province, especially in Mashhad, have drawn criticism from several journalists and environmental experts. Critics have called the extensive destruction caused by the flood in Mashhad a "disaster" and attributed it to urban mismanagement. In this context, Azam Bahrami, an environmental activist, tweeted that the damage to the people from the flood in Mashhad was a "disaster" and pointed to the "change of use" of thousands of hectares of agricultural land to residential, "lack of attention to appropriate urban development patterns," and the absence of "informed urban management," stating that the Islamic Republic "has no foresight whatsoever." Meanwhile, according to the Mehr News Agency, Ahmad Alam al-Huda, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, referred to the recent rains on Friday and said: "You should note that the occurrence of this flood was a natural disaster that caught the authorities off guard." Previously, the Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly had reported that about 28% of Iran's area, with a population of about 56 million, is at risk of severe flooding, and about 15 million of this population is at risk of high-intensity floods.