Rain usually brings delight to people in this arid region. But a record amount of rainfall -- 108.8mm between Friday and Tuesday (the highest monthly record since the 1980s is 89mm) -- that came with the low-pressure area hovering over the Arabian Peninsula this week caused havoc and brought several emirates to a standstill.
Yesterday, rains continued to pour for the fourth consecutive day, submerging low-lying areas in Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman. Dubai Police reported attending to 1,500 accidents by Wednesday afternoon and receiving 40,000 calls from Monday morning as vehicles got marooned in the flood or skidded out of control on slippery roads.
Power problems
Thousands of residents faced power problems in Dubai yesterday. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) reported receiving thousands of complaints and even advised customers by SMS to call private maintenance companies if they needed immediate help.
Complaints included electricity being cut off, short circuits, wires or distribution boxes creating strange sounds and flickering lights.
Dewa customers received a text message at midnight on Tuesday warning of the problem: "Customers may face difficulties with electricity mainly due to internal water leak in the DB [distribution box] of your premises. Please check and call private maintenance company."
Motorists/residents
Shaddy, who lives in Dubai and works in a college in Sharjah, said his usual route of one-and-a-half hours took him three hours.
"I heard Emirates Road was closed due to the rain just before Sharjah, so I took Shaikh Zayed Road, where traffic was relatively OK." However, his "nightmare" started upon reaching Sharjah.
"It was flooded everywhere. Cars broke down and the traffic jams just got worse."
Publicist Aseel, who lives in Al Garhoud, said the chaos was unbearable. "I was stuck on Garhoud for an hour, so I returned home and worked from there. Danger lurked on the road. I wasn't willing to take the risk."
Mohammad, who works and lives in Ras Al Khaimah, had the same story.
"The usual road I took was flooded and so I had to take, another route, there was so much flooding and traffic in the normal route."
People whose cars broke down in the floods found it impossible to reach any road assistance service as car towing services were flooded with cars.
Tahir, a recovery vehicle driver, said his company, Al Ensaf, received around 1,000 calls from Dubai and Sharjah by yesterday morning.
"Our drivers managed to recover only 200 cars due to traffic gridlock."
Construction quality
The rain also tested the infrastructure and construction quality of some buildings. Inside the Deira City Centre, hundreds of buckets overflowed with water dripping from the ceiling.
Brown sewage water overflowed and all bathrooms on the ground floor were closed as the centre's storm water drainage system was overwhelmed.
Schools out till sunday
Schools in Dubai, Sharjah and the northern emirates were shut and will re-open only on Sunday. However, for grade 12 and 13 students, it has been a "pressure-cooker situation" with examinations going on.
"External exams cannot be postponed so we had to reach school on time but we were stuck in traffic for hours and were constantly worried that we may miss our exams," said Aqeelah Ghaffour, head girl at Dubai British School.
Many students went to school as parents said school authorities did not convey the message clearly.
"My five-year-old daughter went to school on Tuesday because the school didn't inform us it's a holiday. She was stuck in traffic for over two hours," said Francis D'Cunha, a parent whose child goes to Kindergarten Starters.
Flight delays
A newspaper ad announcing that "Sharjah International Airport function was postponed due to weather conditions" caused confusion yesterday.
Flight operations staff at the airport reported delays in some flights as some passengers showed up late due to the rain. But Noora Ebrahim, marketing coordinator at the airport, clarified it was the airport's 75th anniversary celebrations that were actually postponed until further notice, not the airport's normal operations.
The weather has also caused flights delays in Dubai, an Emirates airline spokesperson said.
"A few of our flights departing Dubai this morning [January 16] were slightly delayed due to the weather. But these have now taken off [as of 2pm]."
Gated communities
The stretch between the Jebel Ali Golf Course entrance by the Greens roundabout and the Springs roundabout was a picture of chaos and commotion.
There were frustrated residents, abandoned cars stuck in water, floating shoes and hubcaps and overflowing drains.
Roger, an American resident at the Greens, said the flooding tested the drainage system, which caused "great inconvenience".
Developer Emaar deployed a team to regulate the traffic, pushing stuck cars out of the water and pumping out the water.
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