While a heavy downpour is very common in a tropical country like the Philippines, it is an unusual phenomenon in a desert land such as Saudi Arabia. It's almost impossible, but it did happen. Last Monday afternoon, I hurriedly went to our rooftop to get the clothes I recently washed and hanged. The sky had suddenly darkened and it was as if heavy rain is about to fall. At first, I thought it was unlikely to happen because it is already summer and that morning, the sun was shining intensely and the weather was really hot. For a long-time resident, one can tell that the dark clouds would just go away as usual. But I instantly assumed that it is similar to my country, a heavy rain is about to fall. My assumptions have proved to be true for that afternoon, a heavy rainfall had flooded most of the places in downtown of Riyadh.
My husband had actually seen and experienced the unusual incident as he drove from his workplace. Traffic was really heavy and most of the vehicles were stranded on the streets. It's a good thing that he and his colleagues arrived home safe even though late. Their work for yesterday was even cancelled and I'm pretty sure classes as well as other duties were also suspended.
I haven't experienced the flood personally, but I have seen some pictures on the internet. The images are as bad as any calamities and I do feel sorry for those who were affected. I just hope they can recuperate from the loss they have the soonest possible time. Here are some of them (
from picasaweb.google.com).
