UAE struggles to recover from record rainfall
The country's main airport worked to restore normal operations even as floodwater still covered portions of major highways and roads.
Scientists also say the climate crisis is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme storms, droughts, floods and wildfires around the world. / Photo: AP
The United Arab Emirates is struggling to recover from the heaviest recorded rainfall ever to hit the desert nation.
Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, has allowed global carriers on Thursday morning to again fly into Terminal 1 at the airfield.
"Flights continue to be delayed and disrupted, so we urge you to only come to Terminal 1 if you have a confirmed booking," the airport said on the social platform X.
The long-haul carrier Emirates, whose operations had been struggling since the storm on Tuesday, had stopped travellers flying out of the UAE from checking into their flights as they tried to move out connecting passengers.
Pilots and flight crews had been struggling to reach the airport given the water on the roadways. But on Thursday, they lifted that order to allow customers into the airport.
Others who arrived at the airport described hours-long waits to get their baggage, with some just giving up to head home or to whatever hotel would have them.
UAE is hit by heaviest rainfall in 75 years, according to National Meteorology Centre pic.twitter.com/Chs8yq1p7d
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Desert climate
The UAE, a hereditarily ruled nation on the Arabian Peninsula, typically sees little rainfall in its arid desert climate.
However, a massive storm forecasters had been warning about for days blew through the country's seven sheikhdoms.
By the end of Tuesday, more than 142 millimetres (5.59 inches) of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours.
An average year sees 94.7 millimetres (3.73 inches) of rain at Dubai International Airport. Other areas of the country saw even more precipitation.
The UAE's drainage systems quickly became overwhelmed, flooding out neighbourhoods, business districts and even portions of the 12-lane Sheikh Zayed Road highway running through Dubai.
The state-run WAM news agency called the rain “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.”
On Thursday, people waded through oil-slicked floodwater to reach cars earlier abandoned, checking to see if their engines still ran.
Tanker trucks with vacuums began reaching some areas outside of Dubai's downtown core for the first time as well. Schools remain closed until next week.
Authorities have offered no overall damage or injury information from the floods, which killed at least one person.
Abu Dhabi’s state-linked newspaper The National in an editorial Thursday described the heavy rains as a warning to countries in the wider Gulf region to “climate-proof their futures.”
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