Jeddah Floods
 

The media, or at least those bothering to cover the story, are talking about 106 fatalities from only 7cm of rainfall. How can that be? When I lived there, it always flooded once a year and people invariably got stuck in traffic. I remember walking over 2km when my car got stuck in floodwaters...but fatalities, rarely. Were they Hajj related, possibly? Would anyone in the know please clarify what really happened.

Re: Jeddah Floods
 

They had 30cm in Cumbria last week! but 7cm, its maybe the landslides it causes, but if you lived there then you will know better than most.

Re: Jeddah Floods
 

It's not just the amount, it's the intensity that matters as well - over what timescale the amount falls. Also, the 7cm may reflect what happened at the measuring station - but localised rain may have (almost certainly) exceeded that elsewhere.

In the Al Hamra to Al Balad areas, which is my commute, it meant driving through several inches of water - enough to make you worried the engine might cut, but not life threatening.

However, to the east of the city, at the foot of the hills and along the highway that comes from Mecca and then heads for the airport, were the worst affected areas. Photographs in the local papers showed cars that had been swept away by flood waters all smashed up and piled on top of one another like toys.

I suspect that the quoted rainfall data is unreliable.

Many locals are angry about what has happened - infrastructure wise, Jeddah is indeed a bit of a dump, and whilst this has been recognised by the locals for some time albeit with little action from the authorities, this may now result in some long overdue improvements to the road system, water supply, drainage and sewerage networks.

Re: Jeddah Floods
 

most of the fatalities were not hajj related. the most damage was in the south of Jeddah.
here are some links:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/mi...923490434.html
http://xrdarabia.org/2009/11/29/who-...eddahs-floods/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gyUI...eature=channel

Re: Jeddah Floods
 

I see they still have the storm drain that stops in the middle of Al-Andalus handily flooding that entire area when it rains.

Re: Jeddah Floods
 

We had a temporary 30 tonne,30 metre mobile phone tower float 200 metres and its still standing!!! All the houses around it are levelled,British engineering for you.:thumbup:

Re: Jeddah Floods
 

It is terrible what has happened in Jedda. I imagine Jeddah is likey Riyadh in that it does not have a storm water drainage network. When it rains there is nowhere for it to go.

Re: Jeddah Floods
 

It was two - three hours of heavy rain which created havoc. No infrastructure, the drive back from work was horrendous; I saw cars floating by like twigs!

Also the statement of only 100 people dying by the media is fictitious, about ten thousand cars have been wrecked and a friend of mine who works in a local hospital saw hundreds of bodies. It would not be surprising if the figure is around 500-1000 dead.

Check out this article...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...sewage-al-saud

Re: Jeddah Floods
 

Just wanted to bump this article as its definitely worth a read.:thumbup:

Re: Jeddah Floods
 

Agreed - Thanks for posting this J PETE.

Whilst some of the comments made on the article pick the author up on the technical aspects of sewerage/drainage networks, the thrust of the points being made stand. There is a large dis-affected underclass of Saudis out there.

But for the oil and the arms contracts, our 'ethical' leaders would treat KSA with the same contempt as North Korea and Burma.

Re: Jeddah Floods
 

and there's me moving to Saudi because I'm sensitive to all the broadsheets' UAE bashing of late ... OK maybe that's not why