Video shows Dubai International Airport underwater. Heavy rainfall in the region has also led to the deaths of 18 people in Oman. Video / @gunsnrosesgirl3
Heavy rain lashed the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, flooding out portions of major highways and leaving vehicles abandoned on roads throughout Dubai. Meanwhile, the death toll in separate heavy flooding in neighbouring Oman rose to 18 with others still missing as the sultanate prepared for the storm.
The rainbegan overnight, leaving massive ponds on streets as whipping winds disrupted flights at Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel and the home of long-haul carrier Emirates. By the evening, more than 120mm of rainfall had soaked the city-state — the typical average for a year in the desert nation — with more expected in the coming hours.
The overnight downpour left massive ponds on Dubai's roads. Photo / AP
Police and emergency personnel drove slowly through the flooded streets, their emergency lights flashing across the darkened morning. Lightning flashed across the sky, occasionally touching the tip of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
Most schools across the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, closed before the storm and government employees were mainly working remotely if able to. Many workers stayed home as well, though some ventured out, with the unfortunate stalling their vehicles in deeper-than-expected water covering some roads.
Authorities sent tanker trucks into the streets and highways to pump away the water. Water poured into some homes, forcing people to bail out their houses.
Rain is unusual in the UAE, an arid, Arabian Peninsula nation, but occurs periodically during the cooler winter months. Many roads and other areas lack drainage given the lack of regular rainfall, causing flooding.
Rain also fell in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Men try to tow a vehicle out of floodwaters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo / AP
In neighbouring Oman, a sultanate that rests on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, at least 18 people had been killed in heavy rain in recent days, the country’s National Committee for Emergency Management said. That includes about 10 school children swept away in a vehicle with an adult, bringing condolences from rulers throughout the region.
