Story highlights "The damage is enormous and we fear human losses," official tells news agency AFP

The storm made landfall Tuesday near an al Qaeda stronghold on Yemen's central coast

It is forecast to drop the amount of rain Yemen usually gets over 2 or 3 years in just 24 hours

(CNN) Ravaged by months of war, Yemen has now been battered by the first tropical storm on record to make landfall in the impoverished Arab country.

Tropical Cyclone Chapala slammed into Yemen's central coast early Tuesday, lashing the area with maximum sustained winds of around 140 kph (85 mph).

But the major concern is the extraordinary volume of rain the storm system is expected to dump on the country's dry, rugged terrain, bringing a severe threat of mudslides.

Yemen typically gets around 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain per year. Chapala was forecast to unleash two to three times that amount in the space of just one day.

Tropical Cyclone Chapala batters Mukalla, Yemen, on Monday, November 2, 2015.

The deluge is likely to cause "massive debris flows and flash flooding," CNN meteorologist Tom Sater warned.

Read More