Sunday 17 / November / 2024
Muscat: Heavy rains lashed out in many parts of the Sultanate of Oman but the capital Muscat was hit the hardest causing waterlogged streets, damaging both private and commercial properties.
Oman Television warned people to stay indoors as schools and universities asked their students not to go to their respective educational institutions.
Traffic comes to a standstill
Long queues of traffic are being seen on roads and bridges while the police work hard to regulate vehicles.
“The roads and bridges are at the moment very dangerous but people are still being careless by driving fast,” a policeman who was controlling road traffic in Muscat, told Times of Oman.
Hospitals running on full capacity
Hospital officials say people rush to the emergency wards for serious injuries, not only from road traffic incidents but from commercial properties and even private houses.
“We are running on full capacity from six in the morning today. We cannot cope with some emergency cases. We have to transfer some of the worst cases to other hospitals for treatment,” Ilham Hajri, a nurse at the Khoula Hospital, told Times of Oman.
Private and public properties damaged
A wall of a labour camp in the Wilayat of Seeb collapsed and injured workers.
“Part of the wall of our labour camp went down when the workers were asleep. They woke up in a panic and some slipped in the mud and hot hurt. Many of them lost their belongings including money,” the supervisor of a construction labour camp, told Times of Oman.
Omanis also reported damages of their houses due to heavy rains throughout the night and early hours of the morning on Tuesday.
“Our living room and part of our dining room are flooded with water coming in through the windows and door. Some of our furniture needs replacing and that will cost a lot of money,” Ali Al-Mahrouqi in Ghubra, told Times of Oman.
According to the Meteorological Department at the Civil Aviation Authority, the rain in Muscat amounted to 72 millimetres this morning.
