Saudi Arabia: flash floods kills 18 in different parts of the country

[Andrey Eroshin]

18.04.12

JEDDAH: Civil Defense chief said yesterday that 18 people —16 Saudis and two Sudanese — died in flash floods as a result of torrential rains in different parts of the country over the past week.

Lt. Gen. Saad Al-Tuwaijri urged Saudis and expatriates to keep away from valleys at times of flooding.

“Crossing flooded valleys in vehicles is a dangerous act,” he said, adding that no force can stop floods having strength of 20 tons.

He said helicopters would not be able to carry out rescue operations at times of heavy rains and powerful winds.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article613954.ece

http://www.alamatonline.net/l3.php?id=27852

[Kojima]

Flooding on the Arabian Peninsula [Earth Observatory; April 28, 2012]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=77758

Torrential rains caused flooding in parts of Saudi Arabia and Oman in mid- to late April 2012. News reports blamed the floods for damaged buildings, washed out roads, 18 deaths, and about 12 people missing. As of April 21, police and air force personnel were engaged in search-and-rescue operations.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite observed evidence of flooding along the borders between Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Oman in April 2012. MODIS captured the top image on April 18 and the bottom image on April 9. These images use a combination of visible and infrared light to better distinguish between water and land. Water appears in shades of blue-green, and bare ground appears in shades of pink-beige. Isolated clouds appear in pale blue-green and cast shadows.

The image from April 18 shows large areas of water and wet sand extending from southeastern Saudi Arabia into western Oman. In addition, Umm as Samim (or Umm al Samim), a salt pan in Oman, apparently holds more water on April 18.

This region includes part of the Empty Quarter or Rub’ al Khali. In this vast sand sea, salt flats often separate towering dunes, and much of the water visible on April 18 probably rests on those flat areas. Some of the salt flats are paved with roads, and standing water left at least one of those roads impassable.

The flood water might have flowed into the region from the southwestern Empty Quarter, and from the mountains of Oman. Ground water often feeds perennial lakes in this region, and in April 2012, Umm as Samim might have been both a destination for flood water flowing over the surface and a source of upwelling ground water.

Few people associate the Empty Quarter with heavy rain, but G. Robert Brakenridge of the Flood Observatory at the University of Colorado explains: “Flooding is actually surprisingly common, despite how arid the region is, and is often deadly.” Brakenridge produced a flood map of this region, covering April 16–25, 2012.

References

Bahrain News Agency. (2012, April 18) 18 killed in Saudi Arabia floods over past week. Accessed April 24, 2012.

Rejimon, K. (2012, April 21) Rain wreaks havoc. Times of Oman. Accessed April 24, 2012.

ZetaTalk: Heralding, written prior to July 15, 1995

Violent storms, unusual weather patterns, severe and long lasting droughts, increased frequency of hurricanes, torrential rains, and a general warming of the planet. Mankind will find its greatest problems with the weather to be its unpredictability. … Areas of the world which have been deserts throughout mankind's memory will become swamps under constant and repeated rains.

[Andrey Eroshin]

Six killed by flash floods in Oman

21.04.12. Six people killed when they were swept away by swirling wadi waters in various parts of Oman on Thursday.
http://www.zawya.com/story/Two_Emiratis_among_six_killed__by_flash_...

[Kris H]

Perhaps another indicator of Arabian plate moving?

Comment by Daydreamer 27 minutes ago New blasts at Suez oil refineries CAIRO: Twenty-three workers at the Nasr Oil Company were injured after new explosions were reported at the company’s site in Suez Tuesday dawn, officials said. The injured were taken to the General Suez hospital with injuries to the spine and several cases experiencing difficulty in breathing and panic attacks, according to the health ministry. At the crack of dawn residents of the areas near the oil refinery reported hearing explosions after the contests of the fifth oil refinery at the company’s site reportedly caught on fire. Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene. “There is information that the fires that were caused by the explosion are now under control and we don’t have a confirmed survey of the extent of the damages caused,” the Ministry of Petroleum emergency unit told Daily News Egypt. Several oil tanks in Suez were ablaze last Saturday. It took nearly 20 hours to put out the fire, but since then new fires have started intermittently. Despite the ministry’s assurances that the situation is under control, several schools were evacuated as a precautionary step as the fires continue... http://thedailynewsegypt.com/crime-a-accidents/new-blasts-at-suez-o...

[Kris H]

Weather underground shows Jeddah, and Doha, with zero for the last week. I don't know if that is accurate, or that they have no data. Intellicast was similar, said NA, but said the indicator would say "yes" if there was precip on a given day. Still looking...

[Kris H]

Hi Malou, I have been trying to do some research on this, but I am not finding any website that gives rainfall totals for the Middle East region. At least not in English. I am trying to determine if this flash flooding was truly from rain or from Arabian plate movement. I don't know if this was reported already on this ning, but I just came across this link that shows flooding in Sana'a, Yemen on 4/10. It sure seems like a lot of rain over a week for various coastal areas of Arabia, where annual rain totals would not cause flooding if all was in one day.

http://www.aljazeera.com/weather/2012/04/201241085228722159.html

The site you referenced is showing averages. I'm looking for actual recorded amounts over the last week or 2.

[Kris H]

There was an EQ in the Iraq/Iran border region today. Not a big EQ, but it does correlate to the ZT on the Arabian plate roll. Iraq is getting pushed toward the Iran border. Is there documentation of precip levels in these areas of Saudi Arabia? Was this all from rain?

[Andrey Eroshin]

17.04.12. Nigeria flooding

http://www.leadership.ng/nga/articles/22263/2012/04/17/prison_warde...

17.04.12. Ghana flooding

http://www.theghanaianjournal.com/2012/04/17/accra-floods-again-asy...

16.04.12. Somalia flooding

http://features.rr.com/photo/0fnfgXv9TsbqO?q=Al-Qaeda

[Andrey Eroshin]

Iran: Tehran Metro Flooded

15.04.12. Heavy rains in Tehran, Iran have caused flooding in the streets of the the capital city including. Among the areas flooded is parts of the line 4 of Tehran Metro. The flooding of Eram station has caused water to flow towards the lower stations causing the shut-down of parts of lane 4.
The Tehran Metro is a rapid transit system serving Tehran, the capital of Iran. The system consists of 4 operational lines with two additional lines under construction. The Tehran Metro carries more than 2 million passengers a day. In 2010, 459 million trips were made on Tehran Metro.

http://www.payvand.com/news/12/apr/1147.html