Rain Rain Hurricane!

In June of 2007 an unusual hurricane hit this country. They call them Cyclones here. With rainfall occurring 2-3 days a year and with no more than a few millimeters at a time, a hurricane is a catastrophic event. I blogged about this before http://myarabianlife.blogspot.com/search/label/hurricane 


So it was kind of strange this weekend to feel like it was happening again. This time there was no warning. At least, it was our fault for not checking the weather online to see that one was heading our way! I think their may have been something written in the newspapers, but we don't recieve those.
Tuesday, we were enjoying the sight of clouds and a few sprinkles of rain. This happens a few days a year, so the boy Kiddo and I enjoyed some fun standing out on our roof and smelling the rain. Little did we know 24 hours later it would be torrential.

Rain clouds!

On Wednesday we went to the indoor parking garage of the mall, shopped a little. When we went to leave the heavens had opened and water was pouring in the roof of the parking lot. Thankfully it is a 5 minute drive home but already the roads were becoming washed with mud as the drains or wadis were unable to cope with the rain. Our kiddo #2 remembers driving in the last hurricane and asked if this was another one. We laughed saying of course not-I mean wouldn't there have been warnings, some talk of it. Nothing.

Tropical Storm size rain drops!

Roads becoming mud

Arriving home, we were greeted with rain literally pouring in our windows and down the walls. We rushed to get towels and pull everything away from the windows that could be damaged. The windows here are not sealed for storms, so even a little rain causes them to leak. This was little more dramatic with puddles forming in our floors! It was at that moment I was thankful that we hadn't had the money after all to buy carpets-to have them ruined would have been sad.

View from our roof facing the sea

The mosque behind our house

The empty lot next to our house

Sadder yet was what was going on 30 minutes away in another part of town. One of the hospitals flooded, patients had to be evacuated and roads became rivers. It was quite horrific. Another blogger captured these pictures before and after. These photos are taken of the same street minutes apart.

As it turns out Tropical Storm Keila hit Salalah (1000km away) and the rain was the result of that. As we followed it's path online, we saw it was a huge storm. Oman is the coastal country here.

Photo from NASA.gov

Life in Arabia. A little warning next time would be nice though.