JEDDAH: The devastation caused by Wednesday’s flash floods in Jeddah could be seen across the city. One of the worst hit areas was Sulaimaniyah District, especially around the junction between Abdullah Sulaiman Street and the Harmain Expressway, near the city’s King Abdulaziz University. It was as if it had been hit by a tsunami. Hundreds of mangled cars littered the area. There were buses on their sides, cars thrown on top of other cars, others almost flattened beyond recognition. Reports that over 2,000 vehicles had been destroyed seemed no exaggeration.
Elsewhere, great slabs of road surface, four and five meters in length, had been ripped up and dumped as if they were pieces of cardboard. And everywhere could be seen mud, rubble from who knows where and the detritus of disaster: branches of trees, parts of vehicles, children’s toys, shoes, pieces of clothing and bits of broken furniture.
The force of the waters must have been enormous. Part of the support of the bridge carrying the traffic over the expressway was ripped away. In places whole lengths of road surface, at least 10 centimeters deep, had been split off, lifted up, and re-laid on top of the remaining road. Yet between the two layers were wedged crushed tires, tree branches and bits of plastic impossible to identify. It looked as if there had been an earthquake.
Mohammad Faisal was one of the drivers caught in the flood lucky enough to have survived. He explained to Arab News how he was driving south along the expressway around midday on Wednesday, when the flood hit. He was near the intersection with Abdullah Sulaiman Street. Water was cascading down from the hilly Ubayd district on the east side of the expressway. Traffic was trying to get through but had slowed down to almost at a standstill.
“I was frightened,” he said. “The water was pouring down and flooding across the road. I left my car and ran.”
He headed for higher ground where he watched the drama unfold: “I looked back and saw the water lifting cars, crashing them against each other.”
Deserts are known for flash flooding. Rain accumulates quickly in natural channels and builds into a wall of surging water, carrying away anything in its path. In Arabic, the term “wadi” refers to these natural channels. When a city is built over these channels without proper flood control, or when the wadis are filled in, the water has nowhere to go except downhill by the quickest route.
Jeddah’s Abdullah Sulaiman Street became a wadi on Wednesday. The water swept down the street, past King Abdulaziz University, taking cars and other objects with it. Had it not been the university Eid vacation, the death toll would have been higher.
At King Abdullah Road on the southern side of Sulaimaniyah district, there were similar scenes of devastation. The same could be seen on Prince Majed Street past the new Jeddah Gate development and toward King Fahd Street, usually known as Sitteen Street.
The floodwaters had lifted up the road surface, smashing into vehicles and littering the area with debris. It headed across Prince Majed Street, past the new Jeddah Gate development and toward King Fahd Street (Sitteen Street). Beyond that, the new underpass at the junction with Madinah had filled up to the bridge; it had yet to be seen what would be found once the water is pumped out.
“Why were there no drains put in?” asked one Jeddah resident of the murky lake that had accumulated at the underpass. “This should not have happened. Yes, there was a lot of rain, but anywhere else in the world it would not have been a problem. In Malaysia it rains hard but half an hour later, the roads are dry because they have decent drains. What happened here was a man-made problem.”
Rumors of a bus and 20 cars submerged under the bridge were flying among the gawkers.
A more immediate complaint expressed to Arab News by several members of the public on Thursday was the complete absence of any police controlling the traffic in affected areas. With traffic lights not working, damaged vehicles still blocking lanes and drivers trying to avoid damaged road surfaces, the streets were ruled by chaos. The junction between Abdullah Sulaiman Street and Prince Majed Street was gridlocked. Traffic on expressway heading north was at a near standstill, not a traffic policeman to be seen.
