UAE | Environment

Gonu 'dismissed as rumour'

Some residents had not taken warnings about the cyclone seriously, strolling by the wadi while floods were raging, say shocked witnesses.

  • By Abbas Al Lawati and Daniel Bardsely, Staff Reporters
  • Published: 23:38 May 3, 2009
  • Gulf News

  • Image Credit: Ravindranath/Gulf News
  • Vehicles navigate flooded streets in Sur Kalba.
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Dubai: Residents of Muscat woke up yesterday to witness the devastation left behind by the strongest storm to hit the region in decades, causing minor inconveniences for some and indefinite displacement for others.

Click here to see the direction of Gonu (pdf)

Aneesa Al Raisi, 24, who works in the hospitality industry, said she could not "start to think about the damage" caused to her house after a flash flood left most houses in her neighbourhood submerged.

"I saw some water coming our way so I started putting towels under the door, but the water wouldn't stop. Then I heard banging on the door, and it was my neighbours warning me to leave the house. When I opened the door, a massive wave came through and flooded the ground floor," she said. "We feared for our lives."

Aneesa said that before fleeing the house, she had to swim into her new car, which was mostly underwater by then, to fetch her wallet and passport. Having spent the night at her neighbours' house, she said her house would be uninhabitable for "at least another five days" while ten volunteers helped to clean it.

"Everything is gone. Even my university degree," she said. Hussam Mahdi, who works in the petroleum industry, told Gulf News he woke up at his parents'house yesterday and rushed to his own house, to find his ground floor furniture "floating."

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Since his house is located in a low-lying area of the Qurum district, he and his wife moved to his parents' house before the cyclone "with just our clothes and our cars." The damage in his house, he estimated, "is probably worth around 6,000 Omani rials (about Dh57,238)."

Ample warning

"Our situation doesn't even compare with that of others. One of my friends had to stand on the roof of his house and wait for a helicopter to rescue him because his entire house was flooded," he said.

Latif Abdul Latif said some damage was caused to the roof of his house. "Four dish antennas are damaged and some bricks from construction on the roof fell off," he said. "We still don't have running water," he added.

He said, however, that he was shocked to see that some people had not taken warnings about the cyclone seriously. "I saw people strolling by the wadi [river bed] behind our house while floods were raging," he said.

Mahdi agreed that many people had dismissed the warnings as mere rumours before the storm.

Lubna Sultan, a medical student, said "ample warning" was given by the authorities. She told Gulf News yesterday that people had started leaving their houses to see the aftermath of the cyclone. "We saw people going out to take pictures."

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