Over 20 families from Jeddah’s Al-Naseem district, many of them despondent that their situation would improve, were housed at a temporary shelter on King Abdullah Road.

The majority of people at this Civil Defense shelter expressed little confidence that the media would be able to influence change, saying nothing came from the in-depth media coverage following the Nov. 25, 2009 floods.

Um Al-Khair’s home was badly affected in the recent rains. “The area has about some 80 villas which were sold to Saudi families for anything between SR700,000 and SR750,000. Some have brought their homes on installments and are still paying bank loans,” she said.

“I wonder where the engineer who planned this project is. Why didn’t he come to check on us? Is he not ashamed of what has happened to us? The only people who asked about us are volunteer relief workers and the media,” said 42-year-old Hiyam Katib, a mother of five who lives in the Umm Al-Khayr development in the Naseem district.

Katib added that when her area was flooded in 2009, she got help from her brother-in-law who is a specialist diver. This year they left their home as soon as they saw clouds over their home.

“My youngest daughter who goes to primary school wrote on her mini-board that in 2009 her uncle was there for us and that this year we left home. She then wrote wondering what will happen next year. She also asked how long we will stay in this horrible house,” said Katib.

She said the municipality only came to fix their district in Shawwal, three months before the rainy season began. “When the sewage got stuck in our clean water pipes due to the floods in 2009, we repaired them ourselves. We also used to collect cash from our neighbors to get clean water and share it,” she said.

Asked whether they would leave their home, Katib said, “We saved our money to buy a decent house. We thought this home was decent. We came to this well-known engineer who promoted the Umm Al-Khayr development and said he would give us a 14 percent discount if we paid cash. We bought the house five years ago and have no other choice but to stay.”

“We don’t have any money left, we’ve been fooled by the construction company, which showed us pictures of high quality homes. The pictures didn’t represent reality. After moving in, we had to change the doors and floor tiles to make the home look decent. Then the floods came and ruined everything,” she said.

Samira Ali, a 36-year-old mother of four, quoted a popular Arabic proverb, “Two hits to the head are painful, but the third kills,” referring to the two recent floods that have hit Jeddah.

Ali said she contacted the Civil Defense after it rained to find out whether there are any floods heading their way.

“The Civil Defense comforted us and said nothing would happen. After the rain stopped, we saw floodwaters heading toward our home. I’m pregnant and was horrified,” she said.

“We couldn’t even leave home. When the Civil Defense came I was hysterical. We couldn’t leave, it was only after ages that we were finally able to leave,” she added.

Ali’s husband is still paying bank installments on their house. “We don’t know what will happen next,” she added.