Main streets turned into minor rivers and cars by the score ended up stranded blocking thoroughfares and causing chaos. Had it occurred on a working weekday, the confusion and upset would have been far worse.

Traffic lights malfunctioned -- some gave up completely and others displayed red, amber and green simultaneously causing chaos and righteous indignation among angry drivers in equal proportion.

In what has become a driving tradition in Jeddah, the “shebab” came out in force, plowing through water filled roads in 4x4 vehicles creating bow-waves that both soaked passersby and flooded slow moving cars’ engine compartments. More disturbingly, many seemingly adult members of the driving fraternity in expensive SUVs followed suit.

Drivers less financially fortunate who piloted inexpensive and often elderly cars were often left soaked and stranded. The several cars Arab News stopped to assist were often ill-maintained and unprepared for rain or floods. Exposed wiring and electrical connections fell victim to poor driving technique that caused water to flood into the engine compartment soaking the wiring.

Shoppers were also seriously affected as well as road users. In one Al-Hamra supermarket, whose manager was concerned to remain anonymous, the roof leaked thousands of liters of water on to mid-morning shoppers ruining stock and fusing lights in the process. Water poured from the false ceiling through air-conditioning vents and light fittings. Staff herded shoppers out, used plastic table-cloths from the retail display to cover shelves and counters and mopped water from the aisles in a desperate attempt to minimize water damage.

All along the parade of shops adjoining the supermarket, shopkeepers struggled to stave off the water flooding from the roof and inward under poorly fitting doors.

Jeddah is in the tropics and rain is not a new phenomenon here. However the obvious lack of the municipal infrastructure to handle flood water; the lack of understanding and courtesy of many drivers when maneuvering in treacherous conditions; and the outright selfishness and lack of consideration of some who only compounded the collective misery of many road users by treating the flooded roads as a personal water-sports playground was simply shocking. But it was sadly, not unusual.

Nor is rain in Jeddah. But from the state of preparedness of the city to handle it, a visitor might be forgiven for thinking that the rains that made thousands dead or homeless by rain in November 2009 never happened.