The floods of March 2007
Torrential rain flooded Oman a week ago between 18th-19th March. Gulf News published photos of numerous rental 4x4s that had been swept into a wadi at Darsait. Somewhere I've read that the ROP ticketed cars of people who had got out to look, for being in a no-waiting zone.
The paper reported that 44.6mm rain fell on Muscat while Jabal Al Shams received its maximum rainfall of 134mm in the overnight downpour. The Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources reported that over 39 million cubic metres of water had accumulated in the country's recharge dams. These dams are intended not only to enhance the process of recharge to groundwater after rainfall, but also to prevent or lessen damage to life and property downstream.
Four Omanis died when they were swept away by the flood waters.
Amjad's blog has lots of photos of the rain and the flooding in and around Muscat, showing cars almost completely submerged at Al Khuwair roundabout. He links to both Oman Serv and English Sabla forums as the source of the photos. And he also took his own photos, when the driver decided to go no further than Ghubra roundabout and turned back home.
From other sources, including images forwarded from alfaiha.net, I've received photos of the water roaring down the wadi at Nizwa and Wadi Samail in the Interior. I'm reproducing some of these here to show the massive impact that such flows have. The recharge dams are sited near the coast. Therefore the communities of Nizwa, Fanja and Samail felt the full force of the floods.
I have yet to see an estimate of the cost of the damage. There is considerable speculation that insurance companies will have to pay out a tidy amount, but what about infrastructure? How many roads were destroyed? Bridges, culverts, water supplies, telephone masts, agriculture? And so on.
The paper reported that 44.6mm rain fell on Muscat while Jabal Al Shams received its maximum rainfall of 134mm in the overnight downpour. The Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources reported that over 39 million cubic metres of water had accumulated in the country's recharge dams. These dams are intended not only to enhance the process of recharge to groundwater after rainfall, but also to prevent or lessen damage to life and property downstream.
Four Omanis died when they were swept away by the flood waters.
Amjad's blog has lots of photos of the rain and the flooding in and around Muscat, showing cars almost completely submerged at Al Khuwair roundabout. He links to both Oman Serv and English Sabla forums as the source of the photos. And he also took his own photos, when the driver decided to go no further than Ghubra roundabout and turned back home.
From other sources, including images forwarded from alfaiha.net, I've received photos of the water roaring down the wadi at Nizwa and Wadi Samail in the Interior. I'm reproducing some of these here to show the massive impact that such flows have. The recharge dams are sited near the coast. Therefore the communities of Nizwa, Fanja and Samail felt the full force of the floods.
I have yet to see an estimate of the cost of the damage. There is considerable speculation that insurance companies will have to pay out a tidy amount, but what about infrastructure? How many roads were destroyed? Bridges, culverts, water supplies, telephone masts, agriculture? And so on.
Comments
bowsher wrote:
03/28/07 05:40:43
newsbriefs wrote:
Thanks very much for the info and I look forward to receiving your photos.
03/31/07 23:33:21
badria1969 wrote:
please send pictures from Al-amarat. worried in usa!
06/08/07 21:41:00
We went to Khoudh on the following day after the rains and we couldn't enter the wadi because the gravel entry to the wadi from the village was washed out leaving a drop of a metre or so. We had to use the old road that leads to an entry close to the eagle (or three heads) mountain - the alternative village road was also inaccessible. We have not seen so much water in Khoudh for a very long time indeed. Later in the weekend we went to Wadi Dhaika and it was flowing to the brim. I suspect that here too the water must have been greater than ever - deduced from the depth of the streams we had to cross, which took us by surprise so much so several cars developed problems. I hope to be able to email you a few pictures of both locations.