Heavy rains pound Jeddah

JEDDAH (Arab news) : Heavy rains pounded Jeddah and surrounding villages Friday evening and early Saturday morning, but Civil Defense officials said that no deaths had been reported by Saturday evening.

Education officials ordered schools closed on Saturday to calm traffic and check structures for flood damages.
The head of the Meteorology Department at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Mansour Al-Mazrouei, told Arab News that Jeddah received 41.7mm of rainfall in four hours. The average amount of rain during the winter months (November to January) is about 51mm. Jeddah received 90mm of rain in the Nov. 25, 2009 flash floods that took at least 123 lives and damaged thousands of vehicles and homes.

Friday night's heavy rains swamped large areas in the districts of Samir, Ajawd, Braiman, Al-Safa, Al-Nahda and Al-Rehaili. On the other hand, southern and southeastern Jeddah including Sawaed, Harazat, Quwaizah and Kilo14 experienced moderate to light showers.

Civil Defense teams equipped with rubber dinghies and heavy pumping equipment focused mainly in areas prone to flooding such as neighborhoods in the east of the Haramain Expressway that were inundated in the 2009 floods.

Jeddah municipality readied 100 pumping and drainage trucks to undertake emergency operations. It also reopened underpasses in Samir and Ajwad districts that are prone to flooding.

Jeddah municipality officials said Saturday afternoon that they had temporarily closed three underpasses: King Abdullah underpass and the two other underpasses along Prince Majed Street at the intersections of Rouda and Hera streets, all of which had filled nearly to the top with water. The underpasses will be reopened after the water is pumped out, the report said, adding that it would take measures to prevent accumulation of water in underpasses during future rains.

The municipality did not say when and what measures it would take to solve the recurrent problem. The drainage problem with the underpasses have been apparent to the public since the November 2009 floods. Jeddah lacks an adequate drainage system to cope with occasional downpours, requiring municipal workers to remove water manually.

Media reports said a road in Jeddah's Safa District collapsed as a result of rains. Police have blocked the road to prevent accidents.

Municipality officials deployed teams to spray insecticides in swamps caused by rains in various parts of the city to kill mosquitoes.

"We have been spraying insecticides regularly in the city's various districts to fight mosquitoes and protect public health," a municipality statement said.

Hajar village on the city's outskirts was cut off from main roads and the wadi located there was filled with rainwater. Roads at King Abdullah University for Science and Technology in Thuwwal were also submerged.

People in Al-Qadimah town saw damage to a bridge. Many motorists heading to Rabigh had to return to Jeddah because of the rains.

Teachers and students in schools north of Leeth city, locate to the south of Jeddah, could not go to their schools because of flooded wadis in the area. There were also power failures in some places.

Director of Emergency Ward in Al-Thaghr Hospital in Jeddah Dr. Muhammad Bajubair told Arab News that Friday's rains did not cause casualties or accidents except some isolated incidents. One man was seen being put into the back of an ambulance near a flood area in the city center.