Muscat: A family of 20 who had taken shelter in the terrace of their house building were rescued by teams of Civil Defence as Oman continued with rescue operations in the aftermath of Cyclone Shaheen. The National Centre for Emergency Management (NCEM) said rescue teams of the Civil Defence and Ambulance Authority in the North Al Batinah Governorate managed to rescue a family of 20 who were huddled on the terrace as water entered their house.
NCEM teams had repeatedly shared alerts before the landfall of the cyclone to people to go to the upper floors or terraces of the houses in the event of water flooding their homes.
North Batinah region, consisting of key towns such as Rustaq, Nakhal, Barkha and Musannah, was among the governorates hit hardest by tropical Cyclone Shaheen. The rescued people were in good health, NCEM reported.
In another incident, Ghassan Al Ghammari, an Omani citizen who was transporting 15 passengers in a mini bus, was trapped in the bus as it drifted away in the fast-flowing wadi in Amerat. Everyone got out of the bus quickly as it was caught in the current before Ghassan could jump out. His sister has appealed to everyone to help locate her brother. Search and rescue teams were engaged in the search operation that extended from Amerat to Qurum to Hamriya where the wadi flows.
