In a clear—and bitter—signed editorial, Arab News”s Editor in Chief Khaled Al-Maeena writes about the Jeddah floods. He excoriates officials and society for accepting unacceptable performance, construction, and corruption in Saudi infrastructure. The country, he says, is incapable of being pro-active, instead relying on being re-active, and that comes far too late. He notes the lack of emergency shelters anywhere in the country as well as any sort of emergency planning. He casts strong doubts on the capability of Saudi construction firms to produce solid and safe products, an accusation that should cause a ripple of fear across the country. Substandard construction that cuts corners may work and for a long time if it goes unstressed. When stress is applied, though, it washes away.
Cascading effects of apathy
Khaled AlmaeenaWhen rainfall occurs in parched lands with no rivers, people rejoice. From the Thar Desert in India’s northern state of Rajasthan to the arid regions of Arizona and Australia, people rejoice. This was not, however, the case in Jeddah recently. On the 8th of Dul Hijjah (Wednesday, Nov. 25) as I was preparing to go to Mina after morning prayers, I could hear the thunderstorms. The first indication of problems was the loss of electric power.
Later at about 10:30 a.m. as our bus made its way down Madinah Road south of the Square Bridge, we could see the water in front of the International Market; it was rising in the heavy rain. We continued on and as we passed the InterContinental, we saw a Baladia (municipality) vehicle pumping water off the road. This was the start of what grew more serious and more alarming as we proceeded. When we were near the stadium in south Jeddah, we saw cars which had stalled in the water; some were being swept away by the waters. Our bus continued and as we passed the Prince Fawaz Housing Project, the gravity of the situation began to impress itself upon us. On the Makkah-Jeddah highway, we saw a car totally submerged in water. There was nothing we could do. Fearing for their lives, some drivers tore down the fence separating the road and drove their cars on the “wrong side” of the highway. We saw no single police car; nor did we hear the whirring of any Civil Defense helicopter. It was clear the situation was very serious — for many, life-threatening. At Arafat, all we could do was pray that the loss of life and damage to property would be minimal. On YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, the pictures — and Jeddah’s tragedy — were soon being looked at in amazement all over the world.
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December:07:2009 - 20:30
Excellent article thanks. He closes with a rainbow of hope in the form of King Abdullah’s orders, and the words transparency and accountability.
In fact, Saudi is capable of being proactive as with H1N1 and the hajj, preventive strategies and treatment facilities were put in place to avoid disaster and deal with the potential victims should they fall ill.
Similarly it would seem that Saudi has sufficient trained engineers, physicians, urban planners, etc to be able to put in place the type of disaster management programs and preventive infrastructures he is describing. The problem as he stated is the will to follow through on the plans in a transparent, responsible, and accountable fashion. Hopefully, King Abdullah is providing an infusion of this will. Not to mention, a certain amount of international shame over the events.
One other point, it is not as if emergency trained personal are on autopilot, we are. Which is why the training has to be current and drilled so you can do it in your sleep to the highest standard possible, which is often exactly what happens. You are awakened from sleep to handle something and you have to start initiating the appropriate response before you are even fully awake.
December:07:2009 - 20:42
PS: the story of an autistic 7 year old rescued from the woods north of Sydney Nova Scotia, after going missing with his dog, for 2 days, and being caught in a snow blizzard. Multiple search and rescue and relief teams were involved, including his dog’s role in making his way back home, such that they could trace the dog’s path back to the boy:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2009/12/07/ns-delorey-monday.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/autistic-boy-found-after-two-nights-in-ns-woods/article1391442/
It shows the value of having multiple levels of resources, municipal, regional and national, and highly trained ones, including those with cues on how to deal with an non-verbal autistic child, and how to predict the behaviour and distance travelled of a 7 year old boy.
December:08:2009 - 00:29
The author is sadly optimistic about flood-preparedness in India. Many a times have I slogged through water-logged streets prodding ahead with a stick to detect open drain covers…..
Though, to be fair, a disaster of this magnitude would likely have resulted in the responsible state government being thrown out of power with a week.