UAE reels for third day after storm
DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates was still grappling yesterday with the aftermath of a record-breaking storm this week that brought the country to a standstill.
In Dubai, operations at the airport, a major travel hub, remain disrupted after Tuesday’s storm flooded the runway, resulting in flight diversions, delays and cancellations.
The airport yesterday said it had resumed receiving inbound flights at Terminal 1, used by foreign carriers, but flights continue to be delayed and disrupted.
Emirates, the single largest carrier at the airport, said it would resume checking-in passengers in Dubai at 9am yesterday, delaying the restart from midnight by nine hours.
The airport struggled to get food to stranded passengers with nearby roads blocked by floodwaters and because of overcrowding limited access to those who had confirmed bookings.
The storm, which hit Oman on Sunday, pounded the UAE on Tuesday, flooding roads and causing hours-long gridlock as rainwater inundated homes.
One person was reported dead in the UAE and 20 in Oman.
Flooding trapped residents in traffic, offices and homes as the UAE recorded its heaviest rains in the 75 years that records have been kept, authorities said.
Climate experts say rising temperatures caused by human-led climate change were leading to more extreme weather events.
“It’s likely that the storm was kind of supercharged by climate change because there’s just more moisture available in the air for any storm system to then precipitate out,” said climate scientist Colleen Colja.
Researchers anticipate that climate change will lead to heightened temperatures, increased humidity and a greater risk of flooding in parts of the Gulf region.
The problem can be worsened in countries like the UAE where there is a lack of drainage infrastructure to cope with heavy rains.
A UAE government agency denied that cloud seeding took place before the storm.