eight bodies of people thought to have died during the Jeddah floods have been added to the list of missing persons after DNA testing failed to match them to any of the 37 on the official list of those reported as missing by relatives, authorities have said. The 28 unidentified corpses and severed limbs bring to 65 the number of missing persons after the number was added to those whose identities are known. “This shows that there could be more people missing than we thought,” said the chief of Criminal Evidence at Jeddah Police, Saleh Al-Ghamdi. “We have 28 unidentified bodies including body parts which we are treating as we would a complete corpse.” Authorities have noted previously that identification procedures have been impeded by the possible washing up of bodies from a graveyard in one of the flood hit districts. The death toll from the floods still remains at 122, and the search for more bodies continues with the Civil Defense, Army and National Guard all involved. “We have scanned lakes and mountain areas using sophisticated equipment, and searched in valleys and drainage channels, but no new bodies were found,” said the Director of Civil Defense in Jeddah, Abdullah Al-Jedawi. According to Muhammad Al-Qarni of the Jeddah Emergency Center, meanwhile, house inspection committees have embarked on the second phase of their work to assess damage and safety. “4,829 houses have so far been checked, with 3,885 found to be uninhabitable and 944 fit for habitation within a few weeks,” Al-Qarni said. “As of Jan. 1, 11,799 properties and 10,913 vehicles were recorded as damaged.”
