Dubai residents reeling from 'epic rainstorm' and worst flood

The Star

Emergency workers cleared waterclogged roads and people assessed the damage to homes and businesses on Thursday (April 18) after a rare and epic rainstorm swamped the United Arab Emirates.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 The epic rainstorm has stopped and floodwaters are subsiding in the United Arab Emirates.

00:10 But residents are reeling from the aftermath. Many of them returned to their water-clogged

00:15 homes on Thursday to clean up the mess.

00:19 Water was dripping, draining from the top yesterday and now it's all dirty drainage

00:26 water coming out of all the bathrooms, drainage.

00:30 "It was coming out of our drainage basically. So we are guessing there is some kind of blockage

00:36 which the guys are, the authorities are here clearing out, helping us to do it. I know

00:40 it's a lot of work and they are doing their best right now to just get it out. I don't

00:44 know how long it's going to take. We are all waiting, just trying to see what's going to

00:49 happen. I literally moved into my house two weeks back and I had got everything done new

00:53 and my entire garden, my entire living room is just like, all my furniture is floating

00:58 up right now. So I just hope and wish their work really pays off and this starts getting

01:04 better faster."

01:05 "I woke up the other morning to people in kayaks with pet dogs, pet cats, suitcases

01:12 all outside my house, that's where the flood ends, all having to move to hotels. I've got

01:17 friends who have had to move to hotels. It's been, it's a disaster, it's actually a disaster.

01:21 It's the worst I've ever seen it in Dubai. We've seen some bad storms in the past but

01:27 this was like nothing else. It was like an alien invasion. The sky just kept on flashing

01:32 thunder, non-stop, almost non-stop. I've never seen so much rain in all my life."

01:38 They said the weather got better now but most places remained a disaster zone. Emergency

01:44 workers are working round the clock to clear the roads as traffic in many parts of Dubai

01:49 was still disrupted.

01:51 A highway through Dubai was reduced to a single lane in one direction while the main road

01:57 that connects Dubai with Abu Dhabi was closed in the Abu Dhabi direction. Some vehicles

02:03 were still submerged in the water and the local authority told the owners of the abandoned

02:07 vehicles to remove them from the streets.

02:11 The Dubai tram operator said its service had returned to normal ferrying commuters who

02:16 have got back to work. The National Centre of Meteorology said the country saw its heaviest

02:21 downpour in the last 75 years, with some areas recording more than 250 millimetres of rainfall

02:28 in 24 hours.

02:30 .

02:31 .

02:32 .

02:34 .

02:35 .

02:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended