Storm dumps record rain across the desert nation of UAE, floods Dubai’s airport:AP explains [Video]

(17 Apr 2024)

RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dubai, UAE – 17 April 2024

1. SOUNDBITE (English) Jon Gambrell, Gulf and Iran news director, The Associated Press:
“Behind me. You can see I’m in one of these flooded areas in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It’s just been totally inundated since this giant storm rushed through this country on Tuesday. In the time since, authorities say this rainfall was the worst ever recorded, those records go back to 1949, before the United Arab Emirates even existed and before the discovery of oil in this area. Now, as of right now, authorities are still trying to bail out city streets. They’re trying to push abandoned cars out of the way. And at Dubai International Airport, which is the busiest international hub for travellers, they’re still trying to find even space on their taxiways and runways to park planes, to take planes coming in, as well as to try to even get flight crews to the airport to take off on other flights. As of right now, at least one person has been killed in this flooding in the United Arab Emirates and in neighbouring Oman, at least 19 people have been killed in flooding there. I’m Jon Gambrell with the Associated Press in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.”
STORYLINE:
Heavy thunderstorms have lashed the United Arab Emirates, dumping the heaviest rain ever recorded in the country in the span of hours as it flooded out portions of major highways and Dubai’s international airport.

By the end of Tuesday, more 5.59 inches of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours.

An average year sees 3.73 inches of rain at Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel and a hub for the long-haul carrier Emirates.

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.” 

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