Dubai: Dubai was slapped by heavy floods as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was hit by extremely heavy rains on Tuesday.
Pictures and videos of flooded roads, streets, shopping malls, etc were seen on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Roads turned into rivers as they were filled up with ankle-deep water.
Shopping centres like Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates were also seen flooding.
Schools across the UAE have been shut and are expected to remain closed on today as well.
STORY | Storm dumps a year and a half's worth of water on parts of UAE, flooding roads and Dubai's airport
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 17, 2024
READ: https://t.co/SuJmtolbqS
VIDEO: pic.twitter.com/zXRAh19XE4
According to a report by India Today, Dubai airport received about 100 mm of rain in just 12 hours on Tuesday and a total of 160 mm in the last 24 hours.
On average, Dubai receives about 88.9 mm of rain in a year, which concludes that the city received more than a year's rain in a day.
Dubai International Airport said on Wednesday it was experiencing significant disruption due to bad weather and was working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible.
Flights have been delayed or diverted and impacted by displaced crew, the airport said in a statement, adding that recovery would take some time.
Dubai's Emirates airline said that it was suspending check-in for passengers departing the airport from 8 am (0400 GMT) on Wednesday until midnight due to operational challenges caused by the bad weather and road conditions.
Dubai International was temporarily diverting arriving flights on Tuesday evening because of a storm, and operations were suspended for 25 minutes earlier in the day.
According to India Today, the airport stopped flight operations and issued a warning earlier today on X.
Due to adverse weather conditions, multiple flights to and from @DXB are experiencing delays or disruptions.
— Emirates Support (@EmiratesSupport) April 16, 2024
✈️ To check the status of an upcoming flight, please visit https://t.co/RphFmbRpzF
🎫 For help with with an existing booking, please visit https://t.co/H1klWYurOd or DM… pic.twitter.com/YpdIk4Nvsb
The Dubai International Airport requested the passengers to check their flight status.
Employees in Dubai have been told to work from home.
بناءً على توجيهات مجلس الوزراء تقرر تمديد العمل عن بعد ليوم غد الأربعاء الموافق 17 إبريل، لجميع موظفي الحكومة الاتحادية على أن تُستثنى من ذلك الوظائف التي تتطلب التواجد في مقر العمل، وذلك مراعاة للحالة الجوية التي تمر بها الدولة.
— UAEGOV (@UAEmediaoffice) April 16, 2024
The UAE Government took to X and said, "Based on the directives of the Council of Ministers, it was decided to extend remote work until tomorrow, Wednesday, April 17, for all federal government employees, with the exception of jobs that require presence at the workplace, taking into account the weather condition that the country is going through."
With Reuters inputs...
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