The United Arab Emirates struggled on Thursday to recover from the heaviest rains ever recorded in this desert nationas its main airport worked to restore normal operations even as flood water still covered parts of major highways and roads.
Dubai International Airport, The busiest in the world for international travel.allowed global airlines to fly again Thursday morning to the airfield’s Terminal 1.
“Flights continue to be delayed and disrupted, so we urge you to come to Terminal 1 only if you have a confirmed reservation,” the airport said on social platform X.
Long-haul airline Emirates, whose operations had struggled since Tuesday’s storm, had prevented travelers departing from the United Arab Emirates from checking in for flights while it tried to offload connecting passengers. Pilots and flight crews had had difficulty reaching the airport due to water on the roads. But on Thursday they lifted that order to allow customers to enter the airport.
Others who arrived at the airport described hours-long waits to receive their luggage, and some simply gave up on returning home or to the hotel that would accommodate them.
The United Arab Emirates, an autocratic, hereditarily ruled nation on the Arabian Peninsula, typically sees little rain in its arid desert climate. However, a massive storm that forecasters had been warning about for days hit the country’s seven sheikhs.
By the end of Tuesday, more than 142 millimeters (5.59 in) of rain had drenched Dubai in 24 hours. An average year sees 94.7 millimeters (3.73 in) of rain at Dubai International Airport. Other areas of the country suffered even more rainfall.
The UAE’s drainage systems quickly became overwhelmed, flooding neighborhoods, commercial districts and even parts of the 12-lane Sheikh Zayed Road highway that runs through Dubai.
State news agency WAM called the rain “a historic weather phenomenon” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.”
The United Arab Emirates is struggling to recover after the heaviest rains ever recorded hit the desert nation. #UAE #ClimateChange #Dubaifloods
In an address to the nation on Wednesday night, Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi, said authorities would “work quickly to study the state of infrastructure across the UAE and limit damage.” caused.”
On Thursday, people walked through oil-covered flood water to reach previously abandoned cars and check if their engines still worked. Tankers carrying vacuum cleaners also began arriving for the first time in some areas outside central Dubai. Schools will remain closed until next week.
Authorities have not offered general information on damage or injuries from the floods, which killed at least one person.
“Crises reveal the strength of countries and societies,” Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum wrote in X. “The natural climate crisis we experienced demonstrated the great care, awareness, cohesion and love for every corner of the country from all its citizens and residents.”
The floods sparked speculation that the UAE’s aggressive campaign of cloud seeding (flying small planes through clouds dispersing chemicals intended to make rain) may have contributed to the flood. But experts said the storm systems that produced the rain were forecast well in advance and that cloud seeding alone would not have caused such flooding.
Jeff Masters, a meteorologist at Yale Climate Connections, said the flooding in Dubai was caused by an unusually strong low pressure system that brought about many rounds of strong storms.
Scientists also say climate change is responsible for more intense and frequent extreme storms, droughts, floods and wildfires around the world. Dubai was host The United Nations COP28 climate talks just last year.
Abu Dhabi’s state newspaper, The National, in an editorial on Thursday described the heavy rain as a warning to countries in the Persian Gulf region to “prevent their climate future.”
“The scale of this task is more daunting than it appears at first glance, because such changes involve changing the urban environment of a region that, for as long as it has been inhabited, has experienced little more than heat and sand,” the newspaper said. .