Shameful! Jeddah Crippled by Rain Yet Again

It rarely rains in Jeddah, but when it does, it reeks havoc on this city of almost 4 million people.  Schools are canceled.  We lose internet service.  The streets flood.  Hundreds of homes and cars are damaged.  And people get electrocuted or drown - and some die.  The municipality has absolutely no drainage system.  There is no where for the rain water to go.  It's ridiculous that a city of this size is literally crippled and brought to its knees from a little rain.  Promises have been made for years that this issue has been addressed, yet every time it rains, it's the same old thing once again.

Saudi Arabia imports unskilled laborers from poor countries to do cheap and shoddy construction work and if the job is not closely supervised, as many are not, the quality suffers, of course.  It may look pretty good at first glance, but it's always a shock when that first rain comes.

The quality of construction work in this region would be shocking to most of you.  Can you believe that it is not standard procedure to seal all doors and windows?  So with all the dry dust and sandstorms, you can imagine how filthy homes get here if the sealing is not taken care of.  But when it rains, doors and windows leak and it's a mess, not to mention how it ruins the walls and finishes as well as creating mold problems.  People move into nice newly constructed apartments or villas, and then when the first rain comes, they are shocked at the damage and mess. 

To alleviate the horrendous traffic problems in this congested city, a series of tunnels and bridges have been built to replace major intersections and roundabouts.  But trying to solve the traffic problem this way has created an even worse problem when it rains, as the tunnels fill up with rain water.  Many people have died in the tunnels in the past few years.

My husband and I spent several hours yesterday bailing out at least 15 big buckets of water from our stairwell to the rooftop. It's a large area that has windows all around the top and is covered by one of those fiberglass outdoor tent style roofs.  None of it is sealed.  The leaking happens every time it rains here.  For some reason my husband won't have the roof replaced or sealed up.  Thankfully he did have the doors and windows to our flat sealed up after the first rain we experienced when we moved in. 

I lived in Florida for many years, where there are hurricanes and sometimes, even normally, it rains for days on end - and I cannot believe that something has not been done about this situation in Jeddah.  It's shameful for the citizens of Jeddah in this oil rich county to be made to suffer like this with such crappy infrastructure that can't handle a little rain.

I did not take most of these photos (many I found online at this website), but many of them were taken not far from where we live.  It rained for 1-2 hours yesterday morning - that's it.

 

Saudi Man Dies Saving American Child

The following article is reprinted from Arab News. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much at all written about this story in the American press. This young man died a hero, and America should hear about it.
PLEASE READ THE UPDATE TO THIS STORY BELOW.

Mourners hail Saudi's heroic act in US
By MUHAMMAD AL-SULAMI | ARAB NEWS

Published: Apr 26, 2011

JEDDAH: A large crowd attended in Jeddah on Monday the burial of Mashari Abdul Mohsen Al-Siraihi, a 21-year-old who drowned in a lake in Ohio last week after rescuing an American child.

Al-Siraihi, born in 1990, was studying electronic engineering in the University of Akron. His body arrived at King Abdulaziz International Airport on Sunday.


Al-Siraihi and his friend George Raresheid III, 46, of Lake Township drowned in a cold water reservoir in West Branch State Park, Ohio, in a weather-triggered accident on April 17.

Though saddened by the untimely death of the young Saudi man, mourners were proud that he gave his life for another and described him as a real hero.

Speaking to Arab News, the mourners were unanimous in their view that Al-Siraihi’s heroic deed was enough proof for Americans to realize that Saudis are a peace-loving people who uphold moral and humanitarian values.

They said his deed was no strange act to Muslims, who love others regardless of their race, color or creed.

Nasser Al-Siraihi, a relative of the deceased, said he was deeply saddened by the death.

“Though we are sad, we are also proud that Mashari was able to save the American child, who was the son of his friend,” he said.

Muhammad Hamdan Al-Sirahai, Mashari’s uncle, expressed similar sentiments and said he saved a child who was not from his race or religion.

“Mashari was able to project the true picture of Islam. He was a hero who died saving others,” he said.

Naif Al-Siraihi, another uncle, who is a master’s degree student in the US and who accompanied the body back home, said his nephew was sailing with his American friend and his son Michael, 13, in the lake when their 14-foot flat-boat fishing boat capsized in bad weather.

He said Al-Siraihi swam with the child to the shore and went back into the water to rescue the father but could not. He finally succumbed to the water.

He said when American rescuers reached the scene it was too late and both men died.

Naif Al-Siraihi, who shared the same room with Mashari, said the search for his body continued into the next day. “After 20 hours of searching using helicopters, Mashari's body was found near the shore,” he said.

Al-Siraihi's relatives and friends who received the body at the airport said amid tears that his heroic deed would live long in the memory.

UPDATE: Apparently there are two versions to this incident - the way Arab News chose to report it on April 26 with Al-Siraihi dying as a hero, and the version published on April 18 in the CantonRep.com whereby the American boy who survived was the actual hero. Another issue is the fact that the CantonRep reported that Al-Siraihi was in fact the boyfriend of the daughter of the other man who drowned. This was completely omitted in the Arab News article - because good Saudi boys/heros don't have girlfriends. I believe Arab News has intentionally hoodwinked its readers, myself included. And I'm not happy about it.