Dubai roads, airport reel from floods after record rains
Dubai's giant highways were clogged by flooding and its major airport was in chaos as the Middle East financial centre remained gridlocked on Wednesday, a day after the heaviest rains on record.
Tailbacks snaked along waterlogged, six-lane expressways after up to 259.5 millimetres (10.2 inches) of rain, the most since records began 75 years ago, fell on the desert United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.
At least one person was killed, a 70-year-old man who was swept away in his car in Ras Al-Khaimah, one of the oil-rich country's seven emirates, police said.
Power outages were reported around Dubai, which was dotted with flooded areas and submerged and abandoned cars. One road tunnel near the airport was flooded to its roof, and some residential villas were thigh-deep in water.
Dubai rains: Dubai International Airport, Emirates send out warnings to passengers
Similar scenes were visible around the Gulf state including in Sharjah, neighbouring Dubai, where residents waded through main streets and paddled around on makeshift boats.
As sunny skies returned on Wednesday, a day after torrential downpours and rolling black clouds, stories emerged of residents stuck in cars and offices overnight.
«It was one of the most horrific situations I had ever experienced,» said one Dubai resident in his 30s, who did not want to give his name, after his 15-minute commute turned into a 12-hour ordeal on flooded roads.
«I knew that if my car broke down,
