Friday, June 11, 2010
Reconstruction and mopping up of Phet-damaged roads are under
way at Al Amerat and the streets will soon be back to their pre-rains best, but people in this low-lying wilayat stress what they need is a permanent solution. Salim Joseph spends a sleepless night at Amerat when cyclone Phet made the landfall last Friday
WHEN dark clouds hover over the horizon the people of Al Amerat are struck by a morbid fear of the unknown. Even a drizzle that lasts just a few minutes is enough to flood the roads and cut off the wilayat from the rest of the Sultanate for days. Category-1 cyclone Phet did not wreak on this wilayat as much damage as Gonu of 2007 did, but comparisons and conclusions fail to wipe away the reality, which is a mixture of pain, agony and utter helplessness, being felt by the people here in the wake of Phet.
As Phet made the landfall and unleashed heavy rains in the northeastern parts of the Sultanate last Friday, familiar scenes of disgust and desperation returned to haunt Amerat. People who went out of the wilayat were unable to get back home and those who found themselves at Amerat were trapped because the exit points were under raging water or simply vanished with the winds and the gushing water.
Stranded girl
“Oh dad…it’s all water, how can we reach the other side? I want to go home,” we overhear a little girl with a most worried face tugging at her father’s sleeves. The man who just stepped out of his car with his daughter doesn’t know what to say and simply stare at the overflowing wadi that has blocked the road to his village, hardly two kilometres away. It’s still raining and he realises he will have to find a safe place for his daughter, gets back to his car and turns around. Home has to wait…may be for one night or two, he doesn’t know.
The foolish step he took just a few hours back was to take his daughter out for a drive to enjoy the drizzle that began in the morning. Now stranded at the other side of a wadi after a flash flood he is worried about what those at home would be thinking now. With the communication lines down, he can’t even make a call to tell them that they are safe. The initial excitement of enjoying a rain had turned into panic when the torrential rains and strong winds wreaked havoc on properties and roads. Now left with his little daughter to face the stormy night in a saloon car on the roadside, sheer helplessness has struck him like a bolt from the blue.
In fact, there were many in their cars, turning around and around,
desperately looking for a way out of a small stretch of the main Wadi Adai-Amerat road, to reach their houses. But there can be no way out, in a place that boasts of nearly 60 wadis. As the winds grow stronger and rains gather momentum, they can only remain in the car and leave everything to fate.
Recovering from yet another onslaught of heavy rains, residents of
Amerat are a bit less miserable and discontented this time as there was no major toll on life and property. But many are furious over how a small rain could hit normalcy in the wilayats of Amerat, Quriyat or many other neighbouring areas.
“Can’t we have a permanent solution? Can’t we have new roads which could withstand a light rain?” asked Said Al Mahrouqi, a private sector employee who has to travel daily from Amerat to Ruwi, where he works. “Now residents know what to expect and they dare not venture out, even in their 4WDs. That has reduced considerably the number of casualties,” said Sameh Al Habsim a college student.
But that applies only to people with proper houses on safe locations. As the darkness thickens and the wind shatters the makeshift cabins, we see people running for cover. After remaining fully drenched the whole day, all wet and no place to cook food and no shops to buy even a snack, these hapless souls can find no safe place to spend a stormy night. They may not belong to the 40,000 plus living in various villages and townships including Al Amerat, Al Hajer, Jahlout, Wadi Al Meeh, Wadi Al Sireen and Nahda. Now, only survival instincts can help.
And a clear sky the next morning cannot bring smile on the faces of the people in this mountainous wilayat under the Muscat Governorate. It will take another day or two or more to restore normalcy. Gushing water and falling rocks have completely destroyed the roads at several points. The main road to Muscat remains broken at Fairoos and Wadi Adai. There’s no power, no telephone network, nothing.
“We still remain cut off from the rest of the world and it’s definitely not very comfortable to remain so,” added a few residents who had gathered at Fairoos to know the progress of the road restoration works. “Definitely not before noon. May be by evening…Inshah Allah,” says a cop assigned to stop vehicles at the Al Amerat roundabout. And the stranded residents and travellers wait patiently, vowing repeatedly they would be more careful not to be out on the roads next time.
Sameh Al Habsi
Waljat College student residing at Amerat
"Though the intensity of rains was a bit less this time compared to cyclone Gonu that hit us three years ago, we still got cut off from
the rest of the country. However, thanks to the early warnings and precautionary steps initiated by the authorities people refrained
from venturing out, and it helped reduce the causalities in a big way."
Issa Ibrahim Al Balushi
Employee with a construction company at Fairoos
"Whether heavy or moderate rains, the end result seems to be the same. Even light showers are causing problems for people
in places like Amerat. Reconstructing the damaged roads would mean only a temporary restoration of the traffic. What we need is a
permanent solution… perhaps the new road will bring in some relief."
Khalid Al Shaibani
Employee with OIFC in Ruwi and resident of Shabia, Amerat
"When it rains at Amerat, we have to expect the most unexpected things. It was just drizzling and all was normal in the morning
(Friday) and when I went to visit my friends in Ruwi, I never thought I would get stuck on my return. I had to spend an entire night in the car away from my house."
Reconstruction and mopping up of Phet-damaged roads are under
way at Al Amerat and the streets will soon be back to their pre-rains best, but people in this low-lying wilayat stress what they need is a permanent solution. Salim Joseph spends a sleepless night at Amerat when cyclone Phet made the landfall last Friday
As Phet made the landfall and unleashed heavy rains in the northeastern parts of the Sultanate last Friday, familiar scenes of disgust and desperation returned to haunt Amerat. People who went out of the wilayat were unable to get back home and those who found themselves at Amerat were trapped because the exit points were under raging water or simply vanished with the winds and the gushing water.
Stranded girl
“Oh dad…it’s all water, how can we reach the other side? I want to go home,” we overhear a little girl with a most worried face tugging at her father’s sleeves. The man who just stepped out of his car with his daughter doesn’t know what to say and simply stare at the overflowing wadi that has blocked the road to his village, hardly two kilometres away. It’s still raining and he realises he will have to find a safe place for his daughter, gets back to his car and turns around. Home has to wait…may be for one night or two, he doesn’t know.
The foolish step he took just a few hours back was to take his daughter out for a drive to enjoy the drizzle that began in the morning. Now stranded at the other side of a wadi after a flash flood he is worried about what those at home would be thinking now. With the communication lines down, he can’t even make a call to tell them that they are safe. The initial excitement of enjoying a rain had turned into panic when the torrential rains and strong winds wreaked havoc on properties and roads. Now left with his little daughter to face the stormy night in a saloon car on the roadside, sheer helplessness has struck him like a bolt from the blue.In fact, there were many in their cars, turning around and around,
desperately looking for a way out of a small stretch of the main Wadi Adai-Amerat road, to reach their houses. But there can be no way out, in a place that boasts of nearly 60 wadis. As the winds grow stronger and rains gather momentum, they can only remain in the car and leave everything to fate.
Recovering from yet another onslaught of heavy rains, residents of
Amerat are a bit less miserable and discontented this time as there was no major toll on life and property. But many are furious over how a small rain could hit normalcy in the wilayats of Amerat, Quriyat or many other neighbouring areas.
“Can’t we have a permanent solution? Can’t we have new roads which could withstand a light rain?” asked Said Al Mahrouqi, a private sector employee who has to travel daily from Amerat to Ruwi, where he works. “Now residents know what to expect and they dare not venture out, even in their 4WDs. That has reduced considerably the number of casualties,” said Sameh Al Habsim a college student.But that applies only to people with proper houses on safe locations. As the darkness thickens and the wind shatters the makeshift cabins, we see people running for cover. After remaining fully drenched the whole day, all wet and no place to cook food and no shops to buy even a snack, these hapless souls can find no safe place to spend a stormy night. They may not belong to the 40,000 plus living in various villages and townships including Al Amerat, Al Hajer, Jahlout, Wadi Al Meeh, Wadi Al Sireen and Nahda. Now, only survival instincts can help.
And a clear sky the next morning cannot bring smile on the faces of the people in this mountainous wilayat under the Muscat Governorate. It will take another day or two or more to restore normalcy. Gushing water and falling rocks have completely destroyed the roads at several points. The main road to Muscat remains broken at Fairoos and Wadi Adai. There’s no power, no telephone network, nothing.
“We still remain cut off from the rest of the world and it’s definitely not very comfortable to remain so,” added a few residents who had gathered at Fairoos to know the progress of the road restoration works. “Definitely not before noon. May be by evening…Inshah Allah,” says a cop assigned to stop vehicles at the Al Amerat roundabout. And the stranded residents and travellers wait patiently, vowing repeatedly they would be more careful not to be out on the roads next time.Sameh Al Habsi
Waljat College student residing at Amerat
"Though the intensity of rains was a bit less this time compared to cyclone Gonu that hit us three years ago, we still got cut off from
the rest of the country. However, thanks to the early warnings and precautionary steps initiated by the authorities people refrained
from venturing out, and it helped reduce the causalities in a big way."
Issa Ibrahim Al Balushi
Employee with a construction company at Fairoos
"Whether heavy or moderate rains, the end result seems to be the same. Even light showers are causing problems for people
in places like Amerat. Reconstructing the damaged roads would mean only a temporary restoration of the traffic. What we need is a
permanent solution… perhaps the new road will bring in some relief."
Khalid Al Shaibani
Employee with OIFC in Ruwi and resident of Shabia, Amerat
"When it rains at Amerat, we have to expect the most unexpected things. It was just drizzling and all was normal in the morning
(Friday) and when I went to visit my friends in Ruwi, I never thought I would get stuck on my return. I had to spend an entire night in the car away from my house."
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