(18 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dubai – 18 April 2024
1. Various of submerged vehicles in flooded streets
2. Worker walking through flooded streets
3. Various of traffic
4. Various of submerged vehicles in flooded streets
5. Food delivery worker on bike in flooded street
6. Various of cars driving on flooded highway
7. Man next to his stopped car in flooded area
8. Pan from car bumper on cars in flooded street
9. Various of men next to stopped car in flooded street
STORYLINE:
The United Arab Emirates struggled Thursday to recover from the heaviest recorded rainfall ever to hit the desert nation, as its main airport worked to restore normal operations even as floodwater still covered portions of major highways and roads.
Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, 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 Tuesday, had stopped travelers 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 roadways.
But on Thursday, they lifted that order to allow customers into the airport.
Others who arrived at the airport described hourslong waits to get their baggage, with some just giving up to head home or to whatever hotel would have them.
The UAE, a hereditarily ruled, autocratic 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 millimeters (5.59 inches) of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours.
An average year sees 94.7 millimeters (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 neighborhoods, 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.”
AP Video by Malak Harb
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