MAKKAH: Heavy rains that hit Makkah, Madinah and other parts of Saudi Arabia in recent days. Rains have cut off many people living in Al-Rashidiya district of Makkah.
Residents of the neighbourhood said many of them could not reach their houses by car due to the cracked roads where mud and stones washed by the floodwater got accumulated. They pointed out that the floods swept away the power station for the second time this year. Electricity supply to the district was disrupted for more than 48 hours.
The rain brought great sufferings to the people, many of whom were unable to go to work, and the families had difficulty in dropping their children to school. The rain also led to the exposure of electric cables and posed an imminent threat to the lives of children.
The residents called on the Makkah Municipality and Al-Rashidiya branch municipality to solve the issue quickly by repairing the damaged roads and draining water pools so they can easily reach their homes.
Neighbours Awad Al-Zahrani and Sultan Awad told Al-Madina newspaper that all the roads were damaged as a result of the recent rain. It is difficult to drive through the neighbourhood, they said, and added that this forced them to park their cars far away.
They demanded the authorities to find quick solutions to their problem. According to Radi Al-Otaibi and Ahmed Al-Zahrani, the neighbourhood originally lacked many municipal servicesand the rain exposed all the negativity. They requested the municipality to send a technical team to find out the damage to the neighbourhood and work on repairing it as soon as possible.
Following the rain and floods, Mayor Mohammed Al-Qoutat quickly formed a technical committee to look into the damage caused to all the neighbourhoods in eastern Makkah, said Raed Samarkandi, director of public relations and information at Makkah Municipality. This committee will inspect the situation and then submit a technical report backed by recommendations to solve the damage.
At least 10 regions of the Kingdom are expected to be affected by inclement weather conditions until Thursday. Moderate to heavy thundershowers accompanied by hailstorms are expected in Jazan, Asir, Baha, Makkah and Madinah regions, according to a forecast by the General Authority for Meteorology and Environmental Protection. Inclement weather conditions will also affect Al-Qassim, Hail, Riyadh and the Eastern Province.
Heavy to moderate rain started in Riyadh region on Saturday night and continued on Sunday. Strong thunderstorm accompanied by heavy rain continued to hit the Eastern Province for the third day, recording an all-time record rainfall in the month of October. Since Saturday evening clouds had been building over the skies of the region followed by a brief dust storm.
A few minutes before midnight the skies broke open. It was accompanied by heavy thunder that reverberated in Dammam, Al-Khobar, Jubail, Qatif, Sihat and Al-Ahsa. Normal life remained unaffected as the rain started at midnight and mostly people were indoors. But the airport witnessed some minor adjustments in flights that were scheduled to take off around that time. Rain continued until the wee hours of Sunday but its intensity went down.
The skies remained overcast throughout Sunday morning. Motorists who went to drop their children to school or on their way to work were held up in the waterlogged areas in the old cities of Thuqba, Subaikha and Raka in Al-Khobar. Similarly in Dammam, Jubail and Qatif several low-lying areas were flooded.
