Dubai Limping Back to Normalcy

April 20, 2024

(3 Minutes read)

Dubai is limping back to normalcy after the heavy rains and freak floods. Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, allowed global carriers to again fly into Terminal 1 at the airfield

Dubai is limbing back to normalcy after the heavy rains and freak floods. Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, allowed global carriers to again fly into Terminal 1 at the airfield.

And long-haul carrier Emirates, crucial to East-West travel, began allowing local passengers to arrive at Terminal 3, their base of operations. However, Dubai Airport needed at least another 24 hours to resume operations close to its usual schedule. The airport ended up needing 22 tankers with vacuum pumps to get water off its grounds.

Emirates, whose operations had been struggling since the storm Tuesday, had stopped travelers flying out of the UAE from checking into their flights as they tried to move out connecting passengers. Pilots and flight crews also had a hard time reaching the airport given the water on roadways.

But on Thursday, Emirates lifted that order to allow customers into the airport. That saw some 2,000 people come into Terminal 3, again sparking long lines, Griffiths acknowledged. Some travelers who arrived in Dubai described hours long waits to get their baggage, with some just giving up to head home or to whatever hotel would have them.

The UAE typically sees little rainfall in its arid desert climate, but a massive storm forecasters had been warning about for days blew through the country’s seven Emirates. By the end of Tuesday, more than 142 millimeters (5.59 inches) of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours.

An average year sees 94.7 millimeters (3.73 inches) of rain at Dubai International Airport. The UAE’s drainage systems quickly became overwhelmed, flooding out neighborhoods, business districts, and even portions of the 12-lane Sheikh Zayed Road highway running through Dubai.

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.” Authorities have offered no overall damage or injury information from the floods, which killed at least one person.