Can Dubai handle it ?

Guys,

The drizzle past few days has flooded many parts of Dubai. Most of us struggled to reach our offices yesterday. Believe it or not it took me 3 hours to reach my office from Sharjah to Dubai and a record time of 51/2 hours while returning back home.

Some facts –

Rain in Dubai was 81.9 mm
The highest ever rainfall expected this year
Westerly winds are blowing 25 knots offshore
1500 accidents reported in Dubai between Tuesday morning and Wednesday 12 p.m.
And
None of us would make it on time to the office ;)


Other neighboring emirates are equally impacted. Many parts of Sharjah remain underwater. Emirates road was closed today, which caused the ultimate traffic chaos. Schools were also closed for today; hope this takes of some pressure on the traffic. If the rains continue until Wednesday, the economy will suffer loss of at least 1 billion – an amount enough to build a sufficient drainage system for the next five years.

Check out this link: -

http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/editorial_opinion/nation/10182204.html

What time did you reach home today? Please do share your adventure story.

Oops! I did it Again

Hello Mates,

Happy New Year. We have got GWB (George W Bush) visiting us in Dubai. I am sure most of us might be going through chaos, due to the sudden decision taken by the authorities to block roads. Hey! But we got a public holiday – thank you Mr. Bush (at least for something) hehe…!

I understand the precautionary measure taken by the authorities to avoid any causality but don’t you think this is lack of planning.

This is a copy of a mail forwarded by my friend to add confusion at the office: -

Please note there will be several closures tomorrow as a result of GWBs visit to the UAE. According to one report the following roads are expected to be closed between 6 am and 5 pm

Al Khail Road closed
SZR closed from Salik to Salik
Jumeirah Beach Road closed from Al Thanya to Jumeirah Corporate office (far side of Madinat)
Al Wasl closed from Al Thanya to Dubai Police

Most of us kept wondering if this was true and were seeking official notification from our departments until late evening. In the online world the fingers were busy finding if this news was true – by keying several combinations of phrases like: -

Dubai Road Closure
Bush Dubai Road Closure
Dubai Holiday due to bush visit

etc etc and these combinations gave different results. I don’t have any official stats to confirm the most popular searches of the day.

http://gulfnews.com/nation/General/10181630.html - The Gulf news link confirming the rumor.

Hope all of us are for once going to celebrate the unofficial peace keeping day by keeping our cars away from the roads. How do you plan to spend this unexpected public holiday?