Apparently the 2.6 mm of rain we got on Tuesday caused 427 accidents in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, mostly due to cars skidding when applying breaks suddenly. Like I said in an earlier post, UAE drivers do not know how to drive on a normal day, and get flustered at the sight of the tiniest drop of rain.
Today's storm caused a much bigger mess. Other than accidents, a lot of people's houses got flooded, and cars were stopped in the middle of the streets because the water levels were so high in some areas. Dubai can build the tallest skyscraper in the world, the largest mall in the world, islands in the shape of palm trees in the middle of the sea...it can even bring snow to the desert....and yet it can't seem to figure out how to implement a decent drainage system on its streets!!!!!
According to 6Days, in an article entitled "14mm...How a Tiny Bit of Rain Caused Havac (sic) in Dubai" there were 513 accidents across the city. (Yes, you read right, they spelt it Havac instead of Havoc...I won't get into this right now, but you know how I feel about the quality of journalism in this country).
The fact that today is a Thursday helped tremendously, given that a lot of schools and businesses had the day off (because their weekends are Thursday/Friday). I do not even want to begin to imagine how bad it could have been had this happened on a Sunday (or a Monday...or Tuesday or Wednesday for that matter).
3 comments:
Here, it would have snowed and the schools would have closed... People would have piled up on the autoroutes, blocked the streets trying to get out of parking spots and drenched passers by with slushy salty snow.
I must say, tohough, that today is quite nice: sunny and -3°C or so. It snowed a little yesterday so everything is shiny and white. A perfect day for skiing... but I'm stuck in the office.
Inclement wx in AD is rare.....You really can't blame AD drivers for panicing......However, it is pathetic when the same scenario occurs very frequently in Virginia where it rains all seasons of the year.......People get into accidents when the wind blows, when the sun glares,.....you catch my drift!.....Us Northeasterners cring at how people here react to 'normal' winter wx.....In short, I can relate to what you're talking about!
DC HABZ
I don't understand the comment (that most people make) "the drivers here don't undrstand how to drive in the rain." The vast majority of the drivers come from countries where it rains regularly - Europe, the US, India, Pakistan etc etc etc. They know all about rain, so it's nothing to do with not knowing, it's to do with brainless stupidity!
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