Vehicles drive in a flooded avenue following heavy rains in Dubai on April 17, 2024.
Giuseppe Cacace | Afp | Getty Photos
Hussain Sajwani, the chairman of Damac Properties, one of many United Arab Emirate’s largest non-public actual property builders, sought to downplay the severity of flooding within the nation earlier this month, saying there have been solely “pockets of issues.”
On April 16, the usually dry desert nation within the Gulf was pummeled with roughly a yr’s price of rain in lower than a day, greater than it has ever seen in a single storm since data for the UAE started in 1949.Â
Flash floods that shaped led to water engulfing automobiles, in some areas totally submerging them, main lots of of drivers to desert their automobiles on roads to flee the rising water ranges. The deluge additionally closed colleges and companies, grounded lots of of flights, and destroyed automobiles, companies and different property. It threw day by day life into chaos as many residents misplaced energy and operating water or have been trapped both inside their houses or in airports, or wherever they occurred to be when the storm hit.
Damac’s Sajwani conceded there was chaos on the airport, however mentioned the UAE had recovered a lot sooner than different nations would have.
“I believe the topic was overexaggerated, actually,” he informed CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Sunday, talking on the World Financial Discussion board’s “Particular Assembly on World Collaboration, Development and Power for Growth” in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“Wonderful, we get some, in one of many malls, some harm. But when the mall is 3 million sq. ft … and if a 100 meter leakage or no matter occurs — it isn’t the top of the world and it was mounted the following day.”
He defined that he arrived in Dubai from London just some hours after the rains had stopped, and visited all the most important properties that belong to his firm.
Visitors diverts away from a flooded avenue in Sharjah on April 20, 2024, after the heaviest rainfall on document within the UAE.
Ahmed Ramzan | Afp | Getty Photos
“There have been pockets of issues, I am not saying no, nevertheless it was overly exaggerated … Any nation, I imply, you see floods and issues like that occur in Miami commonly and homes get destroyed and other people get evacuated. That is in the present day with the atmosphere altering. In all places on the earth you are getting these sorts of storms, OK, and Dubai has been hit with that. However they managed it very nicely,” he mentioned.
He later added he did not see that classes needed to be discovered because it was an uncommon storm. “It hadn’t hit the nation for 75 years,” he mentioned.
The UAE’s Nationwide Heart of Meteorology mentioned that jap components of the nation measured as much as 250 millimeters — 10 inches — of rain in lower than 24 hours. In contrast, in a full yr the UAE usually sees 5.5 to eight inches of rainfall per yr.
On account of a scarcity of drainage infrastructure and the truth that the nation’s city areas are paved over, a lot of the water had nowhere to go, exacerbating the flooding in lots of areas.
The nation’s cleanup efforts are nonetheless ongoing. One multistory house constructing close to the border of Dubai and the emirate of Sharjah cracked and tilted over as a consequence of structural harm from the storm, and was totally evacuated as a result of it was at risk of collapsing.
Some Dubai builders reportedly supplied free repairs and vowed to take motion after the document rainfall. Damac informed Al Arabiya English that it had labored across the clock with the native authorities authorities to assist residents, deploying a number of tankers to gather floodwaters.
A Damac official additionally informed the information outlet that its upcoming developments had not been impacted by the flooding. Talking to CNBC, Sajwani mentioned that his agency’s properties have been largely left unaffected and it “virtually had no incidents” — however could not affirm whether or not residents would obtain compensation.
“The nice factor we did a) our infrastructure has been carried out, in my opinion, higher than a number of others. The opposite factor is, two days earlier than the storm come — as a result of the warning was there — I had a Zoom [call] from London with our administration. And we agreed to place an motion plan. And we took an excellent motion plan. So we have been prepared for it.”
“We had zero affect. I imply zero affect. I am telling you 98% of our items, possibly extra, have been intact,” he added.
—CNBC’s Natasha Turak contributed to this text.
