By VM Sathish www.business24-7.ae
The heavy rains of the past two days left residents and businessmen across the UAE running for cover.
Flooding in several emirates forced residents to stay at home or rush back from work early to avoid being delayed by slow traffic or vehicle breakdowns yesterday. As a result, municipality officials have been working overtime to clear floodwater.
“Business is down almost 25 per cent because people are not leaving homes and offices,” said Imran Pasha, a sales supervisor at a petrol station in Dubai. “Normally we have daily sales of Dh10,000 but this has fallen by Dh2,000. The impact has been felt both on petrol sales and in the convenience store.”
Some locations such as Al Ain and Jebel Hafit reported the heaviest rainfall of the year, from 25mm to 60mm.
Attendance at schools and offices was also low.
Mohammed Sulaimen, who works at Jebel Ali, said as he travelled home to Sharjah: “I am going back early because the rains are to continue and I’m afraid there will be flooding on roads which will cause accidents. I’m trying to reach home safely.”
But Dubai Metro users were better off. Commuter KM Abbas said: “While motorists are held up on waterlogged roads it is a smooth ride on the Metro.”
Major airport operations also continued smoothly. “The weather conditions have had no effect on Abu Dhabi International Airport’s flight operations,” Ahmed Al Haddabi, Adac’s Senior Vice-President of Airport Operations.
