Police historian Eddie Attard traces rainstorm-related tragedies over the past decades as Malta recovers from Monday’s tempest, which killed one man with a lightning bolt, lashed villages, swept away cars and transformed roads into swimming pools.
• October 16, 1913
At about 12.30pm, heavy clouds accompanied by darkness brought a sudden downpour that swept the island with hurricane force, followed by lightning flashes. The entire lower part of Valletta was flooded.
At about 5pm, an alarm was raised that a number of people occupying tenements numbers 75, 80 and 81 in Strada Levante were in danger.
Three police constables found the occupants in about five feet of water, which was penetrating the roof already in a state of collapse.
At Cottonera, houses were also flooded. Moreover, Karmnu Baldacchino, 12, and another boy, Ġużeppi Bugeja, both from Żejtun, lost their lives when they were dragged by the flood.
The two boys were last seen collecting refuse near the Polverista Gate. Their bodies were later found in those whereabouts.
Joseph Azzopardi, who was proceeding from Luqa to Cospicua, was struck by lightning and rendered insensible. Some workmen gave him assistance and took him home.
• October 5, 1951
Early in the afternoon, the sky darkened and a clap of thunder heralded a sudden rainstorm. A heavy downpour started early in the afternoon and lasted about 12 hours. The worst affected localities were Valley Road, Birkirkara, and Msida.
Ugo Galea, 51, was seen with two other passengers being dragged into the water when they came off the bus, which could not continue the journey.
Two of the passengers managed to return to the bus but Mr Galea did not make it. His lifeless body was later recovered at Msida.
• October 17, 1951
Rain and thunderstorm started at about 1.30pm. Lightning struck a house in Santa Ubaldesca Street, Tarxien, where Toni and Maria Cini lived with their nine children.
The roof collapsed and demolished the first floors of the house. The police, assisted by neighbours, worked at great risk in an attempt to locate those under the debris. Mr Cini, his wife and their son Joseph lost their lives. The other members of the Cini family were taken to the Central Hospital in Floriana. The youngest was Jane Cini, aged four.
About 120 residences sustained damage and the Housing Department provided accommodation to those badly affected.
• September 17, 1954
Strong winds pulled down a wall of St Michael's Training College that was under construction at Ta' Giorni, killing Julian Saliba, 17.
It was reported that the wind reached 59 miles per hour and when the wall collapsed a building stone hit the youngster on his head.
• October 13, 1957
Spiridione Zahra, nine, lost his life when he was dragged by the flood at the Marsa Sports Ground.
In Valletta, at 3.45am, two apartments in St Sebastian Street (near Auberge de Baviere) sustained major damage when the upper roof collapsed.
Alice Talkington, 53, lived in the upper floor and after a power outage she tried to light a petroleum lamp. It was said that Emmanuele Tonna, who lived beneath, tried to warn the woman that they were in great danger as he heard the roof tremble and all of a sudden it collapsed.
At the time, Mr Tonna was in the kitchen of the second-floor apartment. His wife, Mary, together with two of her children, Rose and Twanny, were in the bedroom, which gave way under the weight of the floor above.
Ms Talkington and three members of the Tonna family – Mary, Rose and Twanny – lost their lives.
Luckily, Dorothy Tonna grabbed her baby brother, Martin, and ran into another room. Charlie Tonna and his sister Emily were sleeping in another room when the roofs collapsed. Two members of the Talkington family also escaped unhurt.
• September 13, 1958
Karmenu Spiteri, 21, and his brother Alfred, 17, who were sport hunting in Luqa were struck by a bolt of lightning and lost their lives.
The unexpected thunderstorm also damaged some houses while lightning started a fire in the residence of Karmena Gauci at Msida. However, no one was injured.
• October 25, 1979
Four people died as a result of a storm and the violent water flow. Rain started pouring heavily at about 4.45pm and, in a short span of time, the Marsa Sports Ground was flooded. Life rafts were used to rescue those at the ground.
Another rescue operation was carried out in Valley Road, Birkirkara, where several cars were carried away by the water.
Vivien Hunting, 55, lost her life at Misraħ Kola, Attard, when the basement of her home flooded. Another victim was Loraine Wales, 39, an English tourist whose body was found at Salina.
Anthony Galea, 64, lost his life when the car he was driving was carried away by the flood at Qormi.
His wife and another member of the family escaped unhurt.
The storm claimed another victim, John Herbert, 51, from Suffolk, UK, whose car was washed away from Ta’ Brija, limits of Siġġiewi, to Marsa.
• October 11, 1982
Another October storm left four victims. Anthony Bianco, 47, and his wife Carmen, 51, died when the roof of their house collapsed in Arcades Street, Paola. Carmen died on the spot and her husband died at St Luke’s Hospital.
Catherine Cutajar, 70, from Żurrieq, who worked with the Tabone family at Tower Road, Sliema, died when part of the residence’s roof collapsed.
The fourth victim was Joseph Mangion, 20, who lived in Ħamrun. The parapet wall of the roof of his residence gave way when hit by high winds blowing at about 132 kilometres an hour.