Weekend storms saw the most rain in the country in 24 years
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has more than 600 engineers, inspectors, workers and technicians working “around the clock” to return the emirate back to normality in the face of heavy rain storms and strong winds.
According to the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM), the rainfall over the weekend was the highest since 1996. As of Sunday morning, the highest amount of rainfall from January 9-12 was reported in Al Shakla, Al Ain, with 190.4mm.
The heaviest rain was experienced between Thursday and Sunday morning, with 172.4mm in Mazayd, 172.2mm in Damanth, Al Foah (156.8mm) and Al Muallah (152mm).
The Dubai Media Office said rainfall reached 150mm per hour for two-and-a-half hours.
A social media posting from the RTA revealed the workforce assigned to dealing with the disruption. It added they are being supported by 245 vehicles and machinery varied between pumps, tanks and emergency vehicles.
Dubai Municipality was operating 35 pumps and 52 drainwater stations on Sunday - according to a report in Gulf News, Dubai Municipality received 3,100 enquiries over the weekend regarding rain.
While the Ministry of Infrastructure Development announced it had allocated 20 task forces to monitor roads across the country.
A statement from the federal authority said: “Various regions of the country have witnessed unusually heavy rains, which caused rain water to accumulate on the main roads and cause diversions on some intersections. The Ministry of Infrastructure Development, in coordination with local authorities, have deployed 20 teams to monitor the roads.
“The teams have been assigned to deal with three main tasks, which include the drainage of waterlogged roads, removing mud and heavy debris, as well as repairing roads that may have been damaged by the rain.”
A spokesperson for Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) said: “The teams already attended to cases where electricity was disrupted due to internal faults because of water leaks.”
