JEDDAH: Following torrential rains, which drenched Jeddah on Nov. 25, a new type of flood is happening — a flood of rumors.
Last Tuesday, text messages were circulating stating that, according to the advice of the Jeddah municipality and Civil Defense, residents of the city’s Al-Safa and Al-Samr districts should evacuate the areas immediately because of the danger of an imminent explosion. “The new tunnel bridge that is being built on the Airplane Roundabout is still full of water from last week’s flood and is expected to trigger an explosion due to the mixing of water and electricity from within the bridge,” the message read.
Three days later, on Friday, the text messagers were busy announcing that heavy rains in Riyadh would result in flooding in the capital and that residents should take necessary precautions. Another widely circulated text message later in the day said that the capital’s Civil Defense forces had installed sirens to warn people if there were floods.
Civil Defense denied the siren story just as the earlier tunnel one was denied.
Jeddah municipal spokesman Ahmad Al-Ghamdi told Arab News that it would have been “impossible” for such an explosion to occur and that the water had been pumped out of the tunnel within 48 hours after the rains “making it completely safe.”
These and other text messages have been described by some observers as “light-hearted jokes” to vent frustration at the tragedy and local officials’ seeming lack of responsibility.
“I think that the rumors and jokes represent mistrust of the citizens with the organizations that are meant to be there to protect us — and are not,” explained one local Jeddah resident Ayman Al-Sharif. He said that people believed the floods had shown they could not depend on adequate warnings or quick rescue response from local authorities.
“This is why they are looking to the news reports and talking amongst themselves and spreading rumors,” he said. He wanted the government and local telecom operators to develop a warning system that could be broadcast directly to people’s mobile phones. Al-Ghamdi said such rumors could harm relief efforts. He disagreed with the view that the authorities had proved wanting.
“We have had several press conferences and been speaking on MBC Radio as well as other large television news organizations giving constant updates on what is occurring on the floods to keep citizens informed,” he said.
“I feel that the municipality and other authorities have been completely honest and been doing everything they can to combat the problems of the flood.”
Despite this, it is clear that there is a great deal of public confusion and concern following the floods.
Arab News has been “flooded” with phone calls from the public wanting to know if the sewage lake was safe and asking how would they be warned if the dam burst or if there were any other floods.
