 "There were chaotic scenes within the terminal, with reports that some passengers were turned away because of overcrowding. Image Courtesy: @aztekium/X")
The financial hub of the Middle East, Dubai, has come to a standstill due to intense rain and storms that have resulted in extensive flooding across the otherwise dry country.
Luxury cars have been left stranded on flooded roads. Flights have been delayed, diverted, and even cancelled due to the record rainfall. The scenes inside the airports are also chaotic, with stranded families and no food or proper water.
Travellers have been advised not to visit Dubai Airport, the busiest one in the world for international travel, “unless absolutely necessary.”
Let’s take a look.
Flights delayed, diverted and cancelled
A Dubai Airport spokesperson said, “Flights continue to be delayed and diverted. We are working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions.”
Paul Griffiths, the airport’s CEO, acknowledged the issues while speaking to the state-owned talk radio station Dubai Eye. He said, “It remains an incredibly challenging time. In living memory, I don’t think anyone has ever seen conditions like it."
With additional rain and storms predicted on Tuesday, more than 500 flights, both inbound and outbound, were delayed, diverted or cancelled, as per NDTV.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAbout 15 flights headed for Dubai and 13 flights to India have been cancelled by the authorities, as per Mint.
Due to the unpredictable weather in Dubai, the main airline, Emirates Airlines, has announced that it will not be accepting any further passenger check-ins until Thursday.
“Emirates is working hard to restore our scheduled operations, and our teams will provide all possible support to affected customers,” the airline said in the statement.
Also read: Did artificial rain created by the UAE lead to flooding fiasco in Dubai?
Families stranded at airport
There were chaotic scenes within the terminal, with reports that some passengers were turned away because of overcrowding. According to witness accounts, the roads surrounding the airport were flooded and elite drivers in expensive cars were seen to be “floating” through the flooded streets.
“Some reports suggested people were being turned away from the terminal, such was the level of overcrowding inside as hundreds of travellers looked to escape the chaos,” a spokesperson said, as per The Times of India.
As floods cause havoc and disruption in one of the biggest travel hubs in the world, tourists stuck in Dubai’s main airports claim they are “desperate for food” and are running low on water.
According to passengers who spoke to the BBC, they were kept waiting for hours at Dubai’s two primary international airports with minimal assistance or information.
Due to a flight disruption on their way back from a wedding in Sydney, Cambridge residents James and Elizabeth Devine and their six-month-old son are stuck at the wrong connecting airport in Dubai. It was supposed to land at Dubai International Airport, but it landed at Dubai World Central Airport, which is about 80 kilometres (40 miles) away.
“The restaurants are closed. The only food we have is from duty free so it’s like they haven’t provided any food for infants or young children, there’s no nappies, so we’re like handing-off nappies to people. We are all stuck in this poorly resourced airport. There are hundreds if not thousands of people here. They had to open duty free so we could eat some food but it’s running out,” Devine told BBC.
There isn’t enough seating, so people are standing around, sitting on the floor, and densely clustered together in the photos shot at the scene.
The Mirror.co.uk quoted 36-year-old Pallavi as saying, “People here are sleeping on the floor and the airport is running out of food options. All we are getting is coffee, as everything’s out of supply.”
Pallavi, whose tickets cost £860 each when they were booked in November of last year, was scheduled to take out from Mumbai on Tuesday and arrive in New York via Dubai.
Another family that has been affected by the flooding says they were given the option of another flight for 23 April. Robbie Blood, together with his 48-year-old wife Jo and 11-year-old daughter Amy, travelled to Dubai on 3 April, hoping to spend a peaceful vacation. Travelling home to Buckinghamshire, UK, on Wednesday quickly took a turn for the worst.
Also read: A year’s worth of rain in 24 hours: Why usually dry Dubai is underwater
Passengers fumed
Eight travellers, including Pavneet Singh, were excited about their upcoming journey to Dubai to attend a two-day blockchain conference. According to Indian Express, they had purchased tickets one month in advance, and upon arriving at the Pune airport, they learned from colleagues in other locations that, despite continuous difficulties, flights were departing for Dubai, albeit a little bit late.
“When we reached the airport at 6 pm, we were told the flight would depart as scheduled. Our luggage was checked in and immigration formalities were completed. At 7.30 pm they told us the flight had been cancelled,” Singh told the newspaper.
More than 200 passengers who had purchased tickets for the flight, according to Singh, were devastated by the news.
An unidentified SpiceJet official confirmed weather-related cancellation of the flight. “The situation is fluid and we are responding as it develops,” the official told Indian Express.
According to BBC, Anne Wing, a resident of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, is at the airport with her husband and three kids in anticipation of a flight to London Heathrow. Their flight was scheduled to depart at 11:25, but when they got to the airport at 8:00 local time (04:00 GMT), they were informed it had been delayed by an hour.
“We have spoken to no-one from Emirates since 08:00 this morning. Passengers were shouting and rioting at the connection desk, there were no staff to be seen. Its horrific, we are squashed in like animals - it is dangerous and humane. It’s absolutely ridiculous here,” she said, adding that her family haven’t eaten since lunch time, and all that has been provided are some “small cartons of water.”
After spending two days in Dubai, Margaret McArthur,73, and her husband Derek,75, who are from Monifieth, near Dundee, Scotland, were expected to continue on to Tokyo on Wednesday. They were supposed to depart today morning from Dubai International Airport, but their flight was delayed, and they still haven’t been offered a replacement flight hours later.
“We meant to fly at 07:50 this morning, and we have been at the airport since 06:15. We have been here for 13 hours so far. No food and had only a coffee. There are no facilities where we were told to stay,” McArthur said, adding that they are “desperate for food” and that no vouchers have been issued to passengers.
“We don’t know what is happening,” McArthur said, adding that communication with their airline has been poor.
Also read: Dubai Deluge: Cloud seeding did not cause floods, say experts. Then what did?
Metro services disrupted
Emergency lights glistened off the flooded surfaces as police and emergency vehicles made their way through the flooded lanes. During the unstable weather, lightning even struck the famous Burj Khalifa, as per TOI. Both the Mall of the Emirates and Dubai Mall, two of the biggest shopping centres, experienced flooding.
There were problems with the city’s driverless Metro system, and reports of flooding at several stations affected commuters’ routine travels. According to NDTV, which cited officials, because stations on the Red and Green lines are undergoing maintenance, metro trains are now running on designated routes.
With more storms, including hail, predicted for yesterday, schools have been cancelled and government employees have been given the option to work remotely.
Tanker trucks were sent in by the authorities to remove water from flooded roads and streets. Residential areas were also affected; considerable flooding was reported in some homes, forcing residents to take emergency precautions to safeguard their belongings.
No data on damage assessment or any casualties has been provided despite the widespread disruptions. However, there was a tragic incident reported in the northern emirate of Ras al-Khaimah where a 70-year-old man lost his life after his vehicle was washed away by floodwaters, as per TOI.
Highest rainfall on record
Official media said this was the highest rainfall since records began in 1949, before the formation of the UAE in 1971.
Dubai normally receives only 97 millimetres of rainfall per year, compared to the country’s average of 140–200 millimetres. April’s monthly average is a modest eight millimetres.
Within a day, Khatm al-Shakla in the emirate of al-Ain received 254.8 millimetres of rain, according to the National Centre of Meteorology.
The storm’s impacts were not limited to Dubai; similar sights of flooding and chaos were seen throughout the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, a neighbouring country. The storm claimed the lives of 18 people in Oman, including numerous children, as per NDTV.
The country’s weather office “urged residents to take all the precautions and to stay away from areas of flooding and water accumulation.”
As per The Guardian, Sheikh Mohamed bin Nayan of the United Arab Emirates issued an unusually direct order, according to official media, for “authorities to quickly work on studying the condition of infrastructure throughout the UAE and to limit the damage caused.”
While there are numerous causes of floods, climate change-induced atmospheric warming increases the likelihood of heavy rainfall.
The global temperature has already increased by around 1.1 degrees Celsius since the start of the industrial age, and this trend is expected to continue unless governments everywhere drastically reduce their emissions.
With inputs from agencies