Storm warnings and the response
The governor of Tunis sent the capital's schoolchildren home at 15:00 on 17 September 2026, in a communiqué published seven minutes earlier that gave heavy rain expected from 16:00 as one of its reasons.
On Thursday 10 September 2026 the National Office of Civil Protection raised its readiness to the highest level, for rain expected that day and the next. The National Institute of Meteorology put Greater Tunis, Zaghouan and Béja under an orange warning. Forecasts reported by La Presse put 40 to 60 millimetres over Le Kef, Jendouba, Siliana and Greater Tunis, and up to 80 at Béja and Zaghouan. Khalil Mechri of the office said a preventive plan was moving staff and equipment into the areas likely to be hit.
On Thursday 17 September the governor of Tunis suspended classes from 15:00, in every school, training centre and university in the governorate. The communiqué went out at 14:53. It named heavy rain expected from 16:00, an hour after the schools would empty, along with the institute's alert bulletins and vigilance map. By the time it appeared, rain had already fallen and snarled the traffic, Business News reported. The decision followed consultation with the regional disaster commission.
The governor of Manouba suspended classes as well. Parents left work in a hurry for the schools at the same moment as drivers trying to get home or find shelter, Business News reported. The complaints that followed were about how the decision was announced more than about closing the schools. The institute had put Sousse, Monastir and Mahdia under orange earlier that day, and that evening it added the four governorates of Greater Tunis, after torrential rain, hail and thunderstorms had hit the capital.
The journalist Essia Atrous mocked what she called a supernatural capacity to anticipate events and risks. Hamdi Hached, an environmental expert, set out a warning chain instead. A first alert can come 24 to 48 hours ahead, with the public informed and schools and transport prepared 12 to 24 hours out. A school closure can be decided 6 to 12 hours out, ideally the day before if the danger is expected in the morning.
The storms killed before the 17th and after. A father and his son were swept away near Metlaoui on Saturday 12 September, and searchers found their bodies on the 15th. An 8-year-old boy was carried off by the oued Rouhia in Siliana on Friday 18 September and found dead that evening. Two Algerian border guards were swept away on Sunday 20 September, from Algerian territory into Tunisia according to early findings reported by La Presse. One body was found that Sunday in Kasserine, the second on Wednesday evening, 23 September.
”real early warning is not a simple weather bulletin”
The numbers
What the comparison shows
Where they agree
The forecast is not what anyone disputes. Civil protection acted on it, the Tunis communiqué names the institute's own bulletins as its basis, and Hached's complaint is that a bulletin is not a warning.
Where they split
Hached and Atrous do not aim at the same target. Hached puts the fault in when the decision was taken, and sets out a warning chain that would have produced it earlier. Atrous describes no chain at all: she reads the last-minute closure as a verdict on the country's state of alert.
What nobody is saying
The forecast belongs to the meteorological institute, readiness belongs to the civil protection office and the closure belongs to the governor. The communiqué says what the governor acted on and whom he consulted. No source names a rule obliging him to act by a given hour, and the only timetable is Hamdi Hached's recommendation.
Who says what
He puts the failure in the timing of the decision, not in the forecast. A suspension of classes should not wait for the rain to start or for the roads to clog, and in a flash flood every hour lost cuts what prevention can do.
”l'alerte précoce réelle n'est pas un simple bulletin météo”real early warning is not a simple weather bulletin
She mocked what she called a supernatural capacity to anticipate events and risks. She read the stop to classes at the last minute as a sign of the state of alert in the country.
”capacité surnaturelle à anticiper les événements et les risques”supernatural capacity to anticipate events and risks
Speaking on 10 September, he said the office had raised its readiness to the highest level and put a preventive plan in place, reinforcing the areas likely to be hit with staff and equipment. La Presse reported that priority would go to places already flooded in earlier rain.
Our coverage
- Algerian border guard drowns after floods sweep him into Tunisia near Kasserine, second man missingMonday, 21 September 2026
- Tunisia's Protection Civile logs 333 rescue operations in a day, puts units on alert for new storms from WednesdayMonday, 21 September 2026
- Tunis schools given seven minutes' notice before early dismissal in storm, as a commentary faults the late warningSunday, 20 September 2026
- After the warning came the storm: Tunis floods, motorists trapped, power and internet cutSaturday, 19 September 2026
- Torrential rain floods Greater Tunis; orange alert extended, schools shut from 3pmThursday, 17 September 2026
- Storms flood Grand Tunis, civil protection raises alert to maximumThursday, 10 September 2026