350 still missing after rains
Muhammad Humaidan | Arab News
Cars drifted by flash floods are seen piled up in Gwaizah District, east of Jeddah, on Friday. (AN photo by Hasan Hatrash)
JEDDAH: Rescue operations were still continuing particularly in the badly affected areas to the east of the city as the death toll of the recent torrential rains and floods that swept through Jeddah was put at 85-103 by Civil Defense on Friday. However, three more bodies seen by Arab News reporters were discovered in Quwizah district later, bringing the number of the dead to 88.
Capt. Abdullah Al-Amri, the Civil Defense spokesman, said 37 bodies, all Saudis, had been handed over to their families and relatives for burial.
There were, however, no confirmed statistics about the number of people missing but reports Friday put them at above 350.
Director General of Civil Defense in Jeddah Gen. Muhamamd Abdul Rahman Al-Ghamdi said that a total of 1,251 people, whose homes were completely or partially damaged by the rains and the floods, had been accommodated in furnished apartments following an instruction by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. He said efforts were currently under way to provide accommodation to other families.
Gen. Al-Ghamdi said the king’s gesture covered all the residents of Jeddah affected by the disaster, whether they were Saudis or foreigners. He pointed out that his department would be able to deal with the problem of identities and official documents lost in the rain although it was causing delay in accommodating the victims.
“The department is now surveying all the affected areas looking for casualties and survivors,” he added.
Al-Ghamdi said a special committee was currently assessing damage to homes, cars and other property to inform relevant authorities with a view to future compensation.
He told Arab News that work was currently under way to clear the Haramain Expressway. Local contractors were helping remove cars and other debris blocking it, he said.
He reconfirmed that the Directorate General of Civil Defense had plans for the emergency evacuation of people living and working close to the sewage lake (commonly known to the residents of Jeddah as the Musk Lake).
Reports from Jeddah municipality stated that the lake and its retaining dam were safe. However, local residents had feared that the dam might be breached causing more floods in the city.
The municipality allayed these fears by affirming that the dam encircling it has been further fortified.
Field tours by Arab News reporters to the affected areas noted hectic efforts to reopen the Haramain Expressway, which was blocked by hundreds of wrecked and abandoned vehicles as a result of the floods. It is expected that the road might reopen for normal traffic by early Saturday morning.
Many residents of Quwaizah and Hasat Muraikh appealed to the authorities for help. They said they have been without electricity for many days. They also appealed to welfare organizations to provide them with food and medicines.
Al-Ghamdi, however, promised that the electricity would soon be restored in their areas.
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Updated at: 0100 PST, Sunday, November 29, 2009
RIYADH: A Saudi lawyer said on Saturday he will sue the city of Jeddah, as thousands took to Facebook to blast authorities in a rare burst of open outrage after floods killed more than 100 people in the Red Sea port.
The toll jumped to 103 from Wednesday's floods after authorities discovered more bodies, Saudi-owned private television reported late Saturday.
Human rights lawyer Walid Abu al-Kheir said families of victims of the disaster were supporting the lawsuit, which will allege massive mismanagement of city works construction by the Jeddah government as a key cause for the flooding.
"They didn't make the drainage work. They have told us for three years or more that it has been completed," he said. "Even people from the city government said there were mistakes."
Waleed said he planned to file his lawsuit next Saturday, when government offices and courts reopen after the two-week Eid al-Adha holiday.
A huge rainstorm sparked the flash floods, with many victims caught in their cars and drowning in two metres (6.5 feet) or more of water.
Roads were destroyed and cars and trucks left in piles after the waters receded on Thursday.
Electricity is still out in some of the worst hit parts of the city, the country's second largest after Riyadh.
With public protests banned in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah residents have taken to the Internet to attack the government.
More than 11,000 people joined a Facebook page created three days ago to complain about the floods, saying the city government and contractors were at fault for not building adequate infrastructure.
"We've been talking about this issue for years. Everybody knew this disaster was coming. We've seen something like this on a smaller scale," Saud Kateb, a media technology professor and one of the Internet protesters, told media.
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Saudi Facebook group vents anger over flood
Hassna'a Mokhtar | Arab News
JEDDAH: Following Wednesday’s devastating floods in Jeddah, which left a trail of death and destruction, there is growing anger among residents at the state of the city’s infrastructure.
Some are even threatening to sue the municipality for damages, claiming the flash flooding was a direct result of municipal negligence. A group calling itself the “National Campaign to Save the City of Jeddah” has established an Arabic-language Facebook profile calling for action to ensure the city is never flooded again.
Thousands have rushed to join the group since it was set up on Thursday. By 5 p.m. on Friday, 6,191 Facebook users had joined the group. Thirty minutes later, 153 more people had joined.
“What we witnessed made it clear beyond any doubt that the city of Jeddah is in urgent need to be saved,” the group said on its page.
They have called for a national emergency plan to protect it. The group published nearly 200 photos and numerous videos of the devastation. The group creators said that, contrary to belief, Jeddah residents do not enjoy it when it rains “because of all the damages that happen due to a poor drainage system and poor road planning and infrastructure.”
According to a local e-newspaper, the campaign’s supervisor, Riyadh Al-Zahrani, said that the group was created to unite the efforts of people and organize volunteers to provide assistance and highlight the seriousness of the situation.
“People want to write a petition and send it to the governor. They want to express their feelings about the municipality. It has been shown now that it has no integrity,” Al-Zahrani was quoted as saying.
The King Abdullah Road underpass that was built less than four years ago was completely submerged. “Where is the drainage system? What was the vision of those who designed this project?” asked Al-Zahrani.
Lawyer Waleed Abu Alkhair, one of the campaign’s participants, said that everyone who has been involved in this chaos must be sued.
“We’ll do our best to take this to the Court of Grievances. We’ll ask for compensation to those who suffered losses and damages. That’s the least they should get,” said Alkhair.
Mufleh Al-Qahtani, chairman of the National Society for Human Rights, was reported as saying that victims of the floods have every right to file cases in the Court of Grievances against government bodies.
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Saudia in chaos after ‘self-inflicted flood’
Roger Harrison | Arab News
JEDDAH: Flights were delayed, passenger details were lost and both domestic and international flights were thrown into chaos on Wednesday when Saudi Arabian Airlines’ mainframe computer system crashed. This resulted in Saudia processing passengers, freight and cargo manifests manually and causing long delays.
The problem arose, according to a well-placed source who requested anonymity, when the sprinkler system in their Jeddah computer center turned on and soaked the central booking and manifest handling computers. The system was activated when the part of the sprinkler control system was left exposed to the rain after routine maintenance.
The storms that afflicted Jeddah on Wednesday filled the open covers with rain at about 10 a.m. that worked its way into the system controls and turned it on, presumably from an electrical short.
“All the systems and equipment went offline,” said the source. “It affected Saudia worldwide and this meant that flight plans could not be made, reservations for passengers (could not be) verified and because tickets are all e-tickets, nothing at all was working. It all had to be done manually.”
The rainfall had “affected the electrical feeders for the airline’s main centers of information systems in Al-Kandara district,” said a statement from Abdullah Mishbib Al-Ajhar, the carrier’s assistant director-general of public relations. “It had stopped all the automated systems for air-booking, departures and schedules of pilots and navigators. It had also affected air traffic and delayed all domestic flights during the past 24 hours.”
Since the flooding, people have been unable to book Saudia flights online. Attempts to phone Saudia resulted in unanswered calls or busy tones. Trying to use travel agents was no better. All they could tell would-be passengers was that Saudia’s system was down. One determined traveler drove to Jeddah airport to book a flight only to discover 400 other frustrated people ahead of him trying to do the same.
The anonymous source added that Saudia recently relieved, as a cost-saving exercise, many senior employees who were familiar with the manual booking system and knew the procedures.
“None of the current employees know how to do a load check, passenger manifest reconciliation or much of the other procedures,” he said. “We had delays you would not believe.”
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