Muscat: Life returned to normal on Monday in the northern parts of Oman that were battered by heavy rains following a low pressure area over the Sultanate on Thursday.
Six people — including four Omanis and two expatriates — were killed in the rain and there is still no trace of a young Omani who was swept away by a wadi (stream) in Dima wa Tayeen province.
Several people trapped in the wadis were rescued by the Civil Defence and the Royal Air Force personnel.
For the second consecutive day, efforts are under way to locate the Omani who was washed away by a wadi in Dima wa Tayeen, an official at the Public Authority of the Civil Defence and Ambulance (PACDA) told Gulf News. The PACDA has pressed into service divers, police dogs and a helicopter to locate the missing Omani, he added.
Though some areas were flooded in the northern parts of Oman, no major loss of property was reported. Several dams in the northern provinces of Oman were overflowing.
The highest — 415mm — amount of rainfall was recorded in the Niyabat of Lima of Khasab.
The General Authority for Civil Aviation has confirmed that the depression petered out on Monday.
The Directorate General of Meteorology and Air Navigation has forecast mainly clear skies and dusty conditions over most of the Sultanate.
Meanwhile, the trial of officials in two cases charged with corruption in the oil sector was postponed by the Criminal Court of Muscat due to the poor weather. The accused, locked in the high security Samayil Jail, could not make it to the Muscat court due to traffic snarls as a result of heavy rainfall.
Heavy rainfall led to the overflowding of the wadis in the northern provinces of Oman and holding-in of water by mushrooming dams nationwide.
