Flash flooding in Dubai as storm dumps historic rainfall

Believe it or not, this is the Arabian Desert, specifically the United Arab Emirates, which is currently drying out due to

historic

rains. This comes after deadly

storm

s hit it and its neighboring nation, Oman, earlier this week after

flooding

closed Dubai airport and has inundated roads there. More than 5 and a half inches of rain fell in 20 a 24-hour period, which, to put it in context, is more than the region receives in an entire year. How unusual, Charlie, to see that kind of video from the United Arab Emirates, why was this

flooding

so intense? Yes, Errol, it was crazy.

You know, I've been to Dubai dozens of times. I don't think I've ever seen a drop of rain, so yeah. when you see 5 and a half inches over the course of 24 hours, you can see the damage that resulted because they are simply not prepared for this type of rain in such a short time. Now, what caused it to be such a big

storm

? is the simplest answer, there have been some reports about cloud seeding that was taking place and the UAE says yes, we seed clouds because obviously they need rainwater in that area and there is a way to produce that, but an official one. from Dubai said we would be crazy to see those clouds, they saw what was coming, they just had no idea it was going to be like this.

You're looking at the photos now, I mean, it's extraordinary, I mean, the cars, the water had come. above the cars flooded airport flooded the airport there the runways some of the images of planes landing there uh they had to close the airport one of the busiest airports in the world uh the roofs of a shopping center fell in I mean unprecedented not really I'm not describing the type of rain they had and they clearly don't have the defenses to deal with it well at that point, Charlie, because you know like you do. I spent some time in the United Arab Emirates.

I lived in Abu Dhabi for some time. and I was always fascinated by the great development that has occurred in this portion of the Arabian Peninsula in such a short time. They have all the buildings, opulent museums and all sorts of constructions and infrastructure that just don't seem to be able to Wait with the changing weather systems, how are Emirates trying to mitigate the damage from future storms to prevent this from happening again? Yes, well, Errol, all that money, all those financial resources is the incredible infrastructure, I mean the incredibly modern buildings and roads that they are going to go to.

We need some drainage channels, right? I mean, if you look at some of the cities in the United States and parts of New Mexico, Arizona, they know

flash

flooding because if you're in a desert environment there's not a lot of places for water to go and this has been surprising because like you said , this is a modern city, a modern area, the Emiratis are modern in terms of development there in terms of rapid development, but yes, they are going to have to take a very difficult path. look at what happened now considering this is a once in 75 years occasion or a catastrophe that took place but I guarantee you what we are seeing now is not what Dubai looked like 75 years ago and we are also dealing with climate change and more powerful storms, so they are going to have to address what happened and clearly, clearly, implement some preventive measures and, as you mentioned, Charlie, unlike other nations where we see floods like this, the United Arab Emirates has the financial resources, thank you. to so much oil to deal with it, the airport, although there is a major international hub, a lot of people fly through what is the state of it, how are they trying to get it up and running, yeah, huge, I think an airport official said which is going to take me a while, a master of euphemisms, but over the last 24 48 hours since this storm hit, you know, we've seen images of people who were camping there, as you said, at one of the busiest airports in the world and I.

I don't know if you saw some of those pictures of planes arriving, look, you can see it. I mean, they're essentially landing on lakes in places that they're not used to dealing with those types of weather events, so yeah. was that it was closed for a while, a lot of them were essentially telling people in Dubai not to come to the airport for now and it's a hub and they were telling other airlines not to come, but from what I understand Speaking to a colleague of mine , some of the flights have started coming in and out of Dubai again, you said that Deep Pockets have the resources to recover from these types of events.

It's quite incredible, there is simply no corner of the world that is safe. These strange storms and floods, Charlie Daga, thanks for giving us the latest, we appreciate it, thanks arol.