JEDDAH - The Jeddah flood crisis was a great opportunity for people to make some good money in the space of a few days. They include car washers, rug cleaners and breakdown crews. These people would probably very much want to see a repetition of the recent rains and floods, albeit without casualties.
According to some of them, over 10,000 cars and hundreds of housing units were damaged during the floods.
They said they made around SR2 million from towing away cars alone. The cost of towing away a single car is around SR200. Some citizens, however, claim breakdown crews ripped them off and actually made around SR6 million.
Ali Al-Ghamdi, a Saudi citizen who lives in Kilo 14, said his GMC car was washed away by the floods and greatly damaged. He claimed when he wanted to tow it to the workshops in Prince Miteb market, he was quoted SR500.
“This was an exceptionally high price. I started bargaining until the price came down to SR350, which was still high in normal circumstances,” he said.
Yousef Maghli said he was passing through Quwaiza, one of the harder-hit areas, when a citizen asked for help pulling out his car, promising SR100 as a reward. “I pulled out the car and took the money even though the distance was not more than a few meters,” he said.
Mahmoud Jad Al-Haq, an Egyptian who works in a car-wash workshop, said he and his colleagues could not keep up with rising demand during the initial days of the crisis. He said the eight of them washed about 100 cars, making a daily income of over SR4,000.
“We fixed a price of SR25 for washing a vehicle and SR100 to clean it inside out. We were so busy we did not have time to stop for breakfast or lunch,” he said. Nawwaf, a Pakistani mechanic at a workshop in Prince Miteb market said staff had to turn customers away.
“We were embarrassed as we could not take our regular clients’ cars because we had no time to fix them so we asked them to come later. Though our prices remained unchanged, we were still able to make good profits.”
His colleague and countryman, Abdul Hameed said their workshop was nearest to the affected areas in east Jeddah so they were not able to cope with the large number of customers. “Some of the cars brought to us for repairs or painting were submerged in water and badly damaged,” he said.
A laborer at a rug-washing factory in Kilo 14 said they were unable to cope with the demands of the customers. “We gave them a turnaround time of 15 days and they still accepted,” he said.
Ali Baggash, a Yemeni who also cleans rugs, hoped that the rains would continue to pour strongly but without causing any harm to anyone. “We want to work and make money but not on the account of the misery of others,” he said.
