Heavy rains lash Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan

Ag AFP

RIYADH/AMMAN: Heavy rainfall, accompanied by thunder and lightning, lashed Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan on Thursday night and Friday.

On Wednesday, the General Authority of Meteorology and Environmental Protection forecast that most Saudi regions would experience moderate to heavy rain from Thursday until Sunday.

The Civil Defence urged residents to abide by safety instructions and guidelines, such as taking extra care if driving on slippery roads and avoiding low-lying flooded areas. Motorists have been advised to maintain a sufficient distance between vehicles to avoid accidents.

Meanwhile Kuwait’s Minster of Public Works Hussam Al-Roumi resigned on Friday after flooding across the country.

Al-Roumi expressed his “deep regret” over the severe damage to private property caused by the latest heavy rains.

Rain lashed Kuwait on Thursday and Friday. Footage posted on social media from across Kuwait showed torrents sweeping away cars as sewage systems failed to drain the heavy downpour. “Based on my moral responsibility and in support of the approach taken by His Highness the Prime Minister to bear the consequences of the government’s heavy responsibility, I submitted my resignation to the National Assembly Speaker,” he added.

The army and national guard were mobilised to help clear water from critical facilities and roadways and the Kuwait Oil Company announced a state of emergency, state news agency KUNA reported.

The meteorological department of Kuwait’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation reported that the country has received almost 30 millimeters since Thursday evening, a significantly high amount for Kuwait in a 24-hour span. It forecast unstable weather conditions and moderate to heavy scattered thunderous rains, expected to run until Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, Kuwait University announced it will close its campus and cancel exams scheduled for Saturday.

The Ministry of Interior urged both citizens and expatriates to be extra cautious over the next couple of days.

The prime minister confirmed that the government is following the situation closely in all regions and all ministers have been asked to take the necessary measures in order to maintain safety and minimise damage. He also stressed that those who fail to perform their duties will be held accountable.

Meanwhile, flash floods killed 12 people in Jordan and forced nearly 4,000 tourists to flee the famed ancient desert city of Petra, emergency services said on Saturday.

Search teams were scouring valleys near the historic hill town of Madaba for a young girl who was still missing after Friday´s floods, civil defence spokesman Iyad Amru told state television.

Among those confirmed dead after torrential rains swept the south of the kingdom were six people found in the Madaba area southwest of the capital Amman.

To the east, three people were killed near Dabaa on the Desert Highway, one of Jordan´s three main north-south arteries, while one was killed near Maan in the south.

It was not immediately clear where the other two died.

Amru said two girls had gone missing in the Madaba region, later announcing that one of their bodies had been found.

Government spokeswoman Jumana Ghneimat said authorities had found alive four Israeli tourists who had gone missing in the Wadi Rum desert in southern Jordan but were looking for two more. "Our embassy in Tel Aviv contacted the Israeli foreign ministry for information on the identities of the missing Israelis," Ghneimat said in statements carried by the state news agency Petra.

Israel initially confirmed the report but in a later update a spokesman for the foreign ministry said that "all the Israelis in Jordan have contacted us. All of them were found".

The Jordanian army deployed helicopters and all-terrain vehicles to help with search and rescue operations after floodwaters cut off the Desert Highway in both directions. A rescuer was also among the dead, the civil defence spokesman said.

State television said the waters had reached as high as four metres (13 feet) in parts of the red-rock ravine city of Petra and the adjacent Wadi Musa desert. It broadcast footage of tourists sheltering on high ground on both sides of the access road to Jordan´s biggest attraction. The government spokeswoman said 3,762 tourists were evacuated.

Jordan´s education and tourism ministers both resigned last week over failings in the government´s response to those floods. The education ministry ordered schools closed nationwide on Saturday amid warnings of more heavy rains.

Jordan´s minister of water and irrigation, Raed Abu al-Saoud, said on Saturday that the country´s 14 main dams had filled up by some 26 percent of full capacity in the past 48 hours because of the torrential rains. Jordan is a water-poor country that is 90 percent desert.