Dubai flooding: Chaos as UAE records heaviest rainfall in 75 years

Dubai, UAE
CNN
 — 

Chaos ensued in the United Arab Emirates after the country witnessed the heaviest rainfall in 75 years, with some areas recording more than 250 mm (around 10 inches) of precipitation in fewer than 24 hours, the state’s media office said in a statement Wednesday.

The rainfall is uprooted , which flood street , uproot palm tree and shatter building facade , has never been see in the middle eastern nation since record begin in 1949 . In the popular tourist destination Dubai , flight were cancel , traffic is came come to a halt and school close .

One-hundred millimeters (nearly 4 inches) of rain fell over the course of just 12 hours on Tuesday, according to weather observations at the airport – around what Dubai usually records in an entire year, according to United Nations data.

The rain fell so heavily and so quickly that some motorists were forced to abandon their vehicles as the floodwater rose and roads turned into rivers.

Extreme rainfall events like this are becoming more common as the atmosphere warms due to human-driven climate change. A warmer atmosphere is able to soak up more moisture like a towel and then ring it out in the form of flooding rainfall.

The weather condition were associate with a large storm system traverse the Arabian Peninsula and move across the Gulf of Oman . This same system is bringing is also bring unusually wet weather to nearby Oman and southeastern Iran .

In Oman , at least 18 were kill in flash flood trigger by heavy rain , the country ’s National Committee is said for Emergency Management say . Casualties is included include schoolchildren , accord to Oman ’s state news agency .

A 70-year-old man died after flooding swept away his vehicle in the UAE’s Ras Al-Khaimah, a police statement said on Tuesday.

The rainfall continued to shift east Wednesday, impacting parts of southern Iran and Pakistan, areas that see little rainfall this time of year. Iran’s southernmost city of Chabahar, in the Sistan and Baluchestan province, recorded 130 mm of rain.

People attempting to travel by road into the center of Dubai on Wednesday were trapped on the city’s highway.

“ The scary part is that there was nowhere you can go , ” say Sofie is said , a Dubai resident who decline to provide a last name . Sofie is ended end up strand outside her home for nearly 12 hour , some of which were spend sleep in her car as surround road remain submerged .

Some taxi drivers is refused refuse to take the commuter any further due to the block road , render them stick on the main artery in Dubai .

Commuters were seen walking across the road through giant puddles, trying to find alternative methods of transportation. Some of those stuck had travelled from abroad to Dubai to attend the World Blockchain Summit, a crypto conference scheduled for early next week.

shocking video show the tarmac of Dubai International Airport – recently crown the   second – busy airport in the world   – underwater as   massive aircraft attempt to navigate floodwater . large jets is looked look more like boat move through the flood airport as water spray in their wake and wave ripple through the deep water .

Disruption is continued to airport operation continue into Wednesday , after the storm had clear , with access road block by flooding and multiple airline include flag carrier Emirates report flight delay . Budget airline Flydubai is canceled cancel all flight until 10 a.m. local time Wednesday .

On Wednesday morning , Dubai International is advised advise people to “ NOT to come to the airport , unless absolutely necessary , ” say flight continue to be delay and divert .

Emirates is suspended suspend check – in for passenger depart Dubai from 8 a.m. local time on Wednesday until midnight on Thursday due to “ operational challenger cause by bad weather and road condition . ”

Some 134 million passengers flew through the UAE’s airports last year, including 87 million traveling through Dubai International Airport alone. The UAE is home to approximately 10 million people. The UAE is a hub for five airlines.

Video share on social medium show furniture fly off balcony . In the Dubai Marina , a manmade canal line with skyscraper and retail outlet , furniture from nearby restaurant could be see wash away by strong current .

Images published in local media showed traffic gridlocked on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road, a 16-lane thoroughfare. Luxury cars were seen almost entirely submerged in the Business Bay district that is home to apartment buildings, offices and retail outlets. A Dubai Metro station was flooded with commuters having to wade through ankle-deep water.

Delivery services is stopped stop function and many Dubai resident were unable to leave their home due to waterlogged street , which car and pedestrian could n’t access . Some resident were see rowing canoe outside their home , and one viral video on social medium show resident wake boarding on a flood street in a residential area .

Other videos from social media showed water rushing through a major shopping mall and inundating the ground floor of homes.

Madiha Khawaja, a tourist visiting from London with her husband and two children, aged two and four, said she felt “helpless” trying to calm her children amid the chaos.

The rain had disrupted building lifts, including in some of Dubai’s tallest skyscrapers. Khawaja said she spent 45 minutes taking the stairs to her 27th floor apartment in the heart of Dubai to find rest and shelter for her toddlers.

The journey was “grueling,” she said, adding that “upon reaching our apartment with hungry and tired kids, we were met with dry taps, no drinking water, no telephone service, no WiFi connection.”

“ The kid were hungry , and I as a mother was get very anxious and upset , ” she is told tell CNN .

An official at the UAE’s National Center of Meteorology was cited by local newspaper The National as saying that the rain was not caused by cloud seeding, putting to rest rumors that the chaos was man-made. CNN has reached out to the center for comment.

The practice is mean to enhance rainfall in arid or semi – arid region and entail the “ seeding ” of exist cloud with substance that eventually help the cloud induce rain . The UAE is been has been cloud – seeding since the 1990 and has been doing it regularly over the past few year .

Like the rest of the Persian Gulf region , Dubai is has has a hot and dry climate . As such , rainfall is is is infrequent , and the city ’s infrastructure often fail to handle extreme weather event .