The tropical cyclone Shaheen after making landfall between the wilayats of Al Musannah and Al Suwaiq with torrential rains and heavy winds with speeds ranging from 120-150km/hr resulted in flooding and in some cases requiring rescue operations.
“Shaheen made a landfall at 8 pm on Sunday, bringing in rain for North and South Al Batinah and later move west to Al Dhahirah, Al Buraimi and affecting Dakhiliyah too’’, said Dr Said al Sarmi, Meteorologist, from National Multi-Hazard Early Warning Centre.
By Monday morning the satellite images, weather charts and analysis at the National Multi-Hazard and Early Warning Centre indicated that the tropical storm Shaheen has been downgraded to tropical depression and is currently located over Al Dhahirah governorate. late afternoon on Monday weather chart analysis indicated the direct effects of the weather system Shaheen was over.
On Monday morning the Royal Oman Police Aviation carried out a helicopter rescue operation to bring to safety two individuals stranded in Wadi al Batha, in Wilayat of Suwaiq.
“There are no words to express the situation. Shaheen has wreaked havoc with wadis overflowing and most of the houses, roads, shops and cars flooded’’, said Hammam al Badi from Saham on Monday morning as he tried to clear the path of the house. The front road was a flowing river of rainwater rushing to join the wadis. Roads in most places had become tributaries.
The National Committee for Emergency Management said that traffic is interrupted in some locations of Al Batinah Highway and in emergency cases the NCEM has directed the public to use Muscat Express Highway. There have also been impacts on some of the roads in Al Dakhiliyah Governorate.
As many houses have been flooded, the NCEM has also urged individuals to move to the upper floor if the house is multi-storey, and if the dwelling only has one floor to quickly move to the roof. “Your cooperation to stay in a safe place and not take the risk of leaving will facilitate operations for rapid intervention in urgent cases’’, stated NCEM.
In case of an emergency that requires rapid intervention, NCEM has urged the public to call 9999. The technical teams in the basic services sector are currently accessing the damage and taking inventory of the affected services and developing a plan to restore the services gradually.
Most importantly the major request by the officials is not to cross wadis, even if the vehicle is a four wheel drive or is a large vehicle.
Many places got isolated as roads were swept away due to the rains and flash floods.
The impact of the tropical system is expected to continue over Al Dhahirah, North and South Al Batinah, Al Buraimi and Al Dakhiliyah governorates with chances of heavy rainfall ranging between 70 to 200 mm causing flash floods and moderate to fresh winds ranging between 15 to 25 knots with strong gusts. Rains are expected to continue in Muscat, North and South Al Sharqiyah and Musandam governorates.
Sea condition is expected to be moderate over all the coastal areas of the Sultanate with maximum wave height varying between 1.5 and 2.5 metres.
The weather charts showed that the low pressure system is currently located southwest of Al Dhahirah governorate near the border of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with gradually dissipating, while the sea state along the coastal areas of Oman Sea will be moderate with a wave height of 2 metres.
However the Met Office has given an alert on chances of isolated thundershowers and flash floods over Al Hajar mountains and adjoining areas towards afternoon and evening, therefore the public are advised to take precaution, not to cross wadis and to be away from low lying areas.
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