HELLO MISTERS AND LADYS:
At least 24 people were reportedly killed and several injured in flash floods in Jeddah on Wednesday. Hundreds of homes and shops were flooded as streets turned into raging rivers.
Altogether, some 70 millimeters of rain fell over the city in less than two hours — more than two-thirds of the Kingdom’s annual average rainfall.
Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Majed ordered an emergency control room to be set up to monitor the situation every 12 hours.
In Abraq Al-Raghama district, near the university, entire families were forced onto their roofs to escape the rising floodwaters, polluted by sewage flushed out of the drains. As elsewhere in the city, the drainage system was unable to cope with the load of water.
The city’s Civil Defense services were stretched to the limit to deal with the emergency. Throughout the day, boats and helicopters were brought in to help rescue people. By nightfall many victims were still on their roofs.
In the city’s Safa district and other areas homes were without electricity from around 2 a.m. Wednesday. Residents contacted the emergency services of the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) who said the power would be restored within a couple of hours, but the lights were still out till 8 p.m. Residents complained that no one from SEC had shown up and they were sitting in candlelight.
The torrential rain that drove into Jeddah from the southwest at the break of day, the first day of Haj, caused particularly severe disruption to traffic, as well as overfilling the drainage system. It caused manhole covers to lift and spew black fountains of raw sewage into the streets. Trees were uprooted and fell onto the streets, adding to the hazards. The northbound side of Madinah Road in the Al-Hamra district soon locked solid with traffic while flooding on Al-Malik Road forced vehicles into a single lane.
Within a couple of hours, streets such as the city’s fashionable Tahlia Street began to fill with cars with families out to enjoy the spectacle. With them came the irresponsible driving that the challenging conditions always give rise to. Children hung out of car windows to view the confusion while young men in small cars wove through the waters having fun creating their own personal tidal waves for passing vehicles. Some found themselves stranded as the water drowned their engines and brought them to a halt, adding to the chaos and disruption. The conditions should have called for extreme caution and extra distance between vehicles as oil on the roads emulsified into white scum and created a treacherously slippery road surface. This and the combination of speed and wet brakes resulted in a number of accidents.
The Civil Defense was unable to provide a precise number of fatalities or injuries due to the deluge; it said it was still in the process of finding out the details.
Meanwhile, shopkeepers and café owners were busy trying to clean up their premises.
One had even gone so far as to lift a manhole cover to drain the water from the road outside his shop and marked the spot with a hastily contrived assembly of scrap.
The flooding was worst in the low-lying areas to the east of the Jeddah-Makkah Expressway, isolating hundreds of people in Quwazah and Abruq Al-Raghama districts. Three helicopters, a number of rubber dinghies and divers participated in the rescue operations conducted by the Civil Defense.
Several marooned people phoned Arab News when teams failed to arrive and rescue them. Immediately Arab News contacted the official spokesman of the Civil Defense and provided him with the telephone numbers and locations of the stranded families.
Director General of Health Affairs in Jeddah Dr. Sami Badawood told Arab News on Wednesday the Health Affairs Department had declared a medical emergency in Jeddah.
“King Abdul Aziz Hospital has been receiving airlifted flood victims,” he said. “While all the government hospitals in Jeddah are kept in battle readiness to deal with flood-related cases, Rabigh Hospital was totally evacuated to accommodate flood victims.”
A bridge on the Makkah-Jeddah Expressway was partially damaged in the flooding. A bus was submerged in the floodwater in an underpass on King Abdullah Road. When asked about the damaged bridge, Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, spokesman of the Jeddah municipality, said he did not have precise information about it because the matter was outside his jurisdiction.
The municipality has sent hundreds of workers and trucks to drain the flooded streets. In all, there were 530 calls to the municipality about the flooding. Muhammad Qattan, commander of flood operations in the municipality, said 12 streets in Al-Matar municipality, 12 in Obhur, 10 in Briman and six in Al-Jamia district were flooded. There are also several flooded streets in Aziziah, New Jeddah and south Jeddah districts, he said.
The director of Civil Defense also sent Wednesday night teams to rescue families stranded in residential complexes in Abruq Al-Raghama district.
The flooding not only brought chaos to Jeddah streets; roads into the city were also blocked. Traffic was held up for several hours on the Makkah Expressway.
Pilgrims heading to Makkah were unable to get there and some even took off on foot while drivers heading the other way had to turn back and find other routes. Some who had set out in the morning for the 45-minute journey to Jeddah from Makkah still had not reached their destination by nightfall.
Despite the downpour, there was limited effect at the city’s King Abdulaziz International Airport. A senior construction engineer working on the new airport project described the scene from his office window as “wet, but working perfectly well.”
“There is no standing water on the taxiways or runways and planes are taking off and landing normally,” he said.
However, sources in the airport traffic control system said that there had been some power outages at the South Terminal and minor problems with the radar. There was never a safety issue, he said, but three incoming flights had been diverted to Madinah.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will sponsor on Sunday the inauguration ceremony of King Abdullah Medical City in Makkah and the opening of Mina Al-Wadi Hospital in Mina. This hospital will provide medical service to the residents of the holy city and to pilgrims and visitors year-round.
“This royal sponsorship magnifies the keenness of the Saudi leadership to provide consummate health care to the citizens and to the guests of God and is also a reflection of the great attention the government gives to the health services,” Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah said in a press statement.
He expressed thanks and gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for sponsoring the occasion and for honoring the ministry and its staff.
The minister said the giant King Abdullah Medical City is a specialized referral facility and the third medical city in the Kingdom after King Fahd Medical City in Riyadh and King Fahd Specialist Hospital in Dammam.
He explained that the city was built over an 800,000-square meter area with the national Project for Integrated Health Care, through which the ministry was endeavoring to provide high-quality health services. He said the city had 1,500 beds, including 500 beds in the specialist referral hospital.
Rabeeah said the specialist referral hospital consisted of five stories with 10 operating theaters and a modern radiology department. He also said the maternity and children’s section had 500 beds.
Sick pilgrims
The Ministry of Health transferred 346 pilgrims who were hospitalized in Makkah to similar facilities in Arafat Wednesday to give them the opportunity of performing the key Haj ritual of standing at Arafat on Thursday.
Speaking from Mina to Arab News, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Al-Mirghalani said: “We are happy that we were able to help these pilgrims who came all the way from their own countries to perform their pilgrimage.”
He added that these pilgrims are patients who have been admitted to hospitals in Makkah for minor ailments. He said the patients were moved from three hospitals in Makkah in a convoy of three medical vans. During the transfer, they were supported with a team of doctors and required equipment to facilitate a safe journey to the destination. Under the transfer program, 24 pilgrims from Madinah hospitals were also brought to a hospital located at Arafat.
“The pilgrims were so happy that they were getting an opportunity to be at Arafat on the auspicious day,” Al-Mirghalani said.
67 swine flu cases
Ziad Al-Memish, deputy minister of health for preventive medicine, said so far 67 cases of swine flu have been confirmed among the pilgrims. “They are all warded in the four hospitals located within the holy sites,” he said, adding that the number is minimal considering the fact that 2.5 million pilgrims converged on the holy city from all over the world.
Pilgrims brave downpour
Millions of pilgrims spent the first day of this year’s Haj (Yaum Al-Tarwiyah) in prayers in Mina on Wednesday as rains soaked the faithful and flooded roads snarling traffic. Security forces and other government agencies were striving to clear the mess caused by the rains and guarantee a safe and peaceful stay for the pilgrims in Mina. The pilgrims will converge today (Thursday) on Mount Arafat marking the climax of this year’s Haj.
Violent storms caused havoc at various Haj sites as pilgrims battled the forces of nature to reach their base camps safely. Arab News received reports of hundreds of pilgrims left stranded due to severe flooding at several places between Mina and Makkah on Wednesday.
The day started ominously as dark clouds gathered over the mountainous landscape surrounding the holy sites. However, this did not deter the pilgrims as they made their way to their white tents.
In a tunnel leading to Mina and the Jamrat Bridge, 29-year-old security guard Mohammed Rashed told Arab News he was confident that all necessary resources were in place to tackle natural disasters such as heavy storms.
“There is no problem. We will have more security forces and Civil Defense personnel to help us just in case,” he said as it started drizzling.
Then the heavens opened and pilgrims rushed for cover, thankful that the drainage system installed in the area appeared to deal with the heavy rain effectively.
Other places were more badly hit. Unable to start, vehicles were left half-submerged in the Bahra and Muzha areas as well as the Jawasat checkpoint that leads into Makkah. Key routes between Makkah and Mina were closed down.
When it became apparent that emergency services and Civil Defense forces were unable to cope with the situation, stranded pilgrims began wading through the water and across busy highways as they began to make their way to the holy city.
Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, who is also chairman of the Central Haj Committee, said in a press statement in Mina that all pilgrims arrived in Mina and spent the day safely despite the heavy rains in Makkah and holy sites.
“There are a number of projects of canals and dams to guarantee the safety of pilgrims from rains and floods in Arafat and Mina,” Prince Khaled said.
The prince added that “The No Haj Without Permit” campaign was a great success and resulted in preventing a large number of pilgrims entering Makkah illegally.
In Mina, stranded pilgrim Sami Al-Khatami said, “The emergency services failed to cope with the situation. They were ill prepared for it.”
Some Hajis refused to let the wet weather dampen their spirits.
“Today’s rain caused us trouble but still it was a good omen. The Haj started with Allah showering his blessings on us,” said pilgrim Sharique Arfin Shamsi. Despite the severe weather, the majority of pilgrims safely gathered in Mina before they embark on the crucial journey up Mount Arafat.
However, the weather misery is set to continue until Thursday, with several forecasts predicting more heavy rains.
Meanwhile, health officials scrambled to assure pilgrims that the deluge isn’t going to exacerbate the spread of infectious diseases.
“The health status of the pilgrims is secured. The ministry isn’t worried. There aren’t new cases of swine flu so far,” said Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah in a public statement. “There have been a few accidents due to slipping because of the heavy rain.”
He pointed out that the ministry prepared three hospitals and 26 health centers in Arafat to serve the pilgrims and receive cases. There are also medical teams and emergency teams scattered in Arafat.
Civil Defense Director General Saad Al-Tuwaijri said there has not been any car accident due to the heavy rain in Makkah and the holy sites.
“The situation is secure and under control. We continue to implement the detailed plan to address the hazards of flooding in the holy city of Makkah,” said Al-Tuwaijri.
He added that there is a specialized rescue team ready to intervene in the event of emergencies stressing that some of the camps cannot allow entry to the pilgrims in case of heavy rain in Arafat.
Al-Tuwaijri noted that the Civil Defense started executing the detailed plan to address the risk of flooding in coordination with the concerned authorities. They have stationed specialized field units fully equipped with boats, swimmers and divers in hazardous locations ready to take prompt action, depending on the nature of the situation and evacuate pilgrims from the most common sites at risk of floods to safe locations.
“There are 300 buses ready to transport pilgrims if the need arises. Things are under control in Makkah,” said Al-Tuwaijri.
Media spokesman for the Civil Defense Maj. Abdullah Al-Harithy said that the Civil Air Defense in Makkah saved 47 families who were trapped by the heavy rains in Rabigh district. Rains started early Wednesday and continued for more than five hours inundating a number of steep valleys.
“Our forces managed to evacuate 22 other families who were trapped due to the floods. They were evicted from their homes to a number of hotels and furnished residential units,” said Al-Harithy.
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