Rain is a rarity here in Jeddah, so yesterday when it came down in buckets, areas of the city were immersed in rain water. I would estimate that in some places, the water had to be close to three feet high. Vehicles were disabled everywhere, curbs and barriers were underwater causing hazardous conditions for drivers since many of the streets appeared to be raging rivers. Not much thought or planning has gone into preparing for conditions like this in Jeddah and the city is ill-equipped to deal with flash flooding like this. It’s too bad the precious water couldn’t be diverted or harnessed to be useful instead of just wasting it and considering it a nuisance.
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Craziness! I don’t think I’ve experienced anything quite like that here, other than crazy hail storms in the middle of the summer that also resulted in some buildings flooding pretty bad (the big mall here seems to have a big problem with that).
This is amazing to see! So much water in so short of a time. When I was a kid, my dad bought a little Amphicar that would have come in handy for this sort of thing. On dry land it was a car but you could drive it right into the water and it became a boat.
The wasted water is truly a shame as water is now a global issue!
This has to be pretty unusual.
well, in Jeddah it’s actually not rare to have these kinds of floods when it rains. there are just roads in the city that are prone to such. but of course you rarely see floods there since rain’s rare, too. 😀
Just sending you a link from Norway, about your city.
http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/11/26/nyheter/utenriks/naturkatastrofer/flom/9209399/
Thanks, Gunn. I am working on a post about this for my other blog too. It was quite a day!
Wow, must be kind of freaky for desert dwellers to see this kind of flooding. It is too bad it can’t be diverted and put to good use. I think you should be the Queen of SAK.
Have a happy Thanksgiving Susie.
That is a lot of rain water. And who knows with the climate change we are seeing, this might happen more often in the future.
ya i sure dont miss that part of jeddah, although the lightning was always cool =)
Gosh!!
Well, I guess I can not really complain, about what it is like in Stavanger.