Wet weather leaves some Dubai residents high and dry, as staff spend night in offices amid travel disruption

Some Dubai residents slept in their offices as the heavy rain and stormy weather caused flooding and disrupted public transport in the city.

The authorities issued weather warnings before the storm hit and many people in the public and private sectors worked remotely.

But some offices were open as usual, with staff facing challenges when it came to finding their way home.

Ahmed Ali, an accountant for a food and beverage company, told The National he stayed overnight in his office on Tuesday, after completing a full day of work.

“I’ve been stuck in my workplace for more than 30 hours due to road closures and the Metro,” he said.

He said at least five other employees stayed in the office in Dubai Marina to wait for Metro services to resume.

Mr Ali, who is from Pakistan, said he and his colleagues bought food from the nearby Dubai Marina Mall.

“We couldn’t sleep most of the night because there were no pillows or blankets,” he said.

Paul Lund, a financial analyst from the UK, was also still stuck in his office in Dubai International Financial Centre.

He spent the night there after roads were closed because of flooding.

“The big problem was not just the Metro going down, but all the taxis were closed due to flooding at Dubai Mall and so everyone was left to try to flag anything down,” said Mr Lund, who lives in Dubai Marina.

“I was trying to get an Uber all night, but in the end spent the night in my office.

“Sheikh Zayed Road was already slow with traffic, but it rained very heavily at about 7pm and the water rose and trapped a lot of cars and buses.

“I went back to my office as I have a great view of the Metro in case it started back up.

“However, I saw hundreds of people walking up Sheikh Zayed towards Deira. There were hundreds at Dubai Mall Metro station when I left at about 1am.”

Steven Bischoff travelled to Dubai from New York City to attend the Global Blockchain Show, which was scheduled to end yesterday.

He said it took several hours to return his hotel.

“My hotel is Lusso Hometels J One – this was a three-hour walk from the venue,” he said.

“The Metro was open but only one station. This caused hundreds of people to be stuck at different stations.”

He met a family along the way who did not have phone service and could not access online maps to plot a route home.

“We helped them get to a train station safely but it’s unknown if the station was open,” Mr Bischoff said.

“We waded through flooded streets and had to navigate broken pieces of cars, metal and debris hidden under the dark brown water.”