Sent: Friday, April 26, 2024
Hello…
Just a little note this morning.
Thanks for all your messages & thoughts about our flooding here in Dubai.
Tuesday, we got the 4 workers to the airport to travel to Pakistan Special Meetings. One storm had already gone through. The water was at least 2 ft deep at that point. I was able to safely make it back to the bach by myself. At the bach we had Amelia & her mom, Ranjini & Vivek from India. Two more separate storms came through & the weather office said the 3 storms came from 3 different directions & all focused & hit Dubai. That evening Amelia & I waded through water 3 ft deep to find a hotel for Vivek. Back to the bach & got Vivek & back again to the hotel about 300 meters from our bach. By morning the water in the streets was 4 ft deep. Some of our friends walked 15 kms from their workplace to their home in water 5 ft deep. Then the 5 apartments around us turned off their electricity & lifts stopped working because of the shorting of the electricity. Our apartment block managed to keep electricity except for 2 hours. But…. As our apartment’s water holding tanks are underground they became flooded & contaminated with sewer water… so all our tap water was unusable. We could only flush water in the toilets. We had some water bottles & used that for drinking, cooking & washing dishes. No baths! No laundry! Washing dishes was only done in 2 inches of water. Hand wipes to the rescue. Our nearest friend brought us food & veggies in an inflatable child’s swimming pool. On the 6th day, the tap water for flushing the toilets stopped… & we made the decision to leave the bach. The street water had subsided to 2 ft of green sewer water & we were able to get the Indian workers out to the airport… & Amelia’s mom treated us to a hotel & now today we will go & stay with one of our friends. Vivek walked every day through the water to our bach & spent the day with us. We had wonderful visits & fellowship with Ranjini & Vivek… & not a complaint from anyone. We count the days as rich.
Some stats: 1244 flights were cancelled. 30,000 pieces of luggage was backlogged & not able to be delivered to those passengers, nor to the ones in transit. 12,000 hotel rooms were accommodated by the airlines. 255 mm (10 inches) of rainfall in 12 hours. Dubai has storm & street drains. Sharjah (the city where we live in) doesn’t have such drains!! Guess the city was planned in the days when very little rain fell.
But we are ok… & just want to thank you for all your thoughts & messages.
Amelia & Betty
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