Rain rain rain

The average rain fall for Muscat each year is 75mm.  Not much, not much at all.  Because they don't get much rain, they have no infrastructure to deal with rain.  Literally.  No ditches, no sewers, no road drains, etc...   In the picture above, the water is running through the dirt under the road down into the parking lot. So when it does rain, it's serious business.  And funny, sorta.  Before I knew how serious rain is in Oman, and since we weren't experiencing the serious side of it, I found a lot of it humorous. 

The view from our house towards the mountains.

The rain came yesterday morning.  Around our house, it sprinkled and had a few bigger fits, but pretty low key.  Puddles formed on the edges of the streets and our patio.  We could tell it was pouring in the mountains nearby, which creates problems described later in this post.  It was also pouring around the coast and an area of Muscat called Ruwi and in Old Muscat.  

Aberly and I stayed inside all day.  I watched as neighbors looked out their windows at the rain, mesmerized.  Kids would come outside and play in the puddles like it was the greatest thing.  It was like the first snow of winter would be back home.  After Colin got home from work, I headed out for a quick run to a store about a mile down the road.  We needed milk a few other things for dinner.  I turned on the radio. 

If you know what the Portland news is like when it snows in the valley, then you can imagine what this radio news was like.  But imagine it times two and about rain.  Here is a list of what I heard about:

-  The DJ's were advising to not drive if you didn't have to. 
-  Local meteorologists were on talking about the expected weather and rainfall for the next 24 hours. 
-  A guest to the studio was warning against the dangers of driving in the rain (slippery roads, water splashing on your windshield making it hard to see, brakes locking up, poor visibility in general)
-  Emails and facebook comments to the radio station by loyal listeners being read by the DJ's to give reports to us about what was happening around the city, questions people had, concerns expressed, rainfall reports from area to area, etc...  One person was asking for advice of whether his friend should drive such a "long distance" to another town in these serious conditions.
- Stories of how locals were handling the rain and keeping a "light heart" about the situation.  We were all being encouraged to stay positive.

I just laughed to myself.  Seriously???  As I drove, I laughed too because everyone around me was driving like it was icy and snowy out.  You would've thought they were going over Santiam Pass when it's white with snow.  SLOWLY and tense, hands gripped to the wheels.  When I got to a roundabout that had some standing water around the inner edges, a man put on his warning flashers as he drove through (only one side of his car was in water, people).  The parking lot at the store had a huge puddle in the middle but knowing it wasn't deep, I drove right through.  A lady behind me stopped her car and turned around, too scared to drive through, even after seeing me go through.  Granted I was in my SUV and she was in a sedan, but she would've been fine.

When I got to the store I did have to walk carefully.  Everything is tile.  Tile is super slippery when covered in water.  The stores don't have floor mats at the doors, so broken down boxes greeted me to collect the water from shoes.  

Okay, so yes, it was funny and I still laugh, but the reality is that the rain is serious business here because low lying areas get flooded, and fast.  The rain from the hills and mountains come running off right away because it doesn't get absorbed into the ground since the mountains are mainly rock. I found out from a friend that evening about the flash floods in Ruwi.  Cars were being swept away and damaged.  Watery roads quickly became small rivers so drivers had no way to get away.  It's common for someone to die when it rains from these flash floods.  The roads do get slippery too.  They are dusty and oily.  All of it comes up when it rains.  Businesses and homes get flooded in the low lying areas.  Apparently the Sultan's palace in Old Muscat was flooded.  If you are my friend on Facebook, I shared a link with lots of pictures of an area that got the flash floods.

So, yes, rain in Muscat is serious business.  But I loved it.  For two reasons.  One, the humor described above.  And two, for two days, I got to feel "fall".  It was gray and cloudy and beautiful.  The air smelled like rain.  I could smell it before it arrived that evening.  It was comforting.  It gave me a piece of home.

 

Fun pictures of Miss Aberly playing inside on a rainy day.  "Silly" hats, as she likes to call them, on her and Colin.