Gridlock on Sheikh Zayed. Check out the sign - "Watch for water ponds"!
Oh no the rain DID NOT flood his S-class.
All is lost. Forsake your SUV. Run for cover.
Hokay, so. Between yesterday's Bush-induced lockdown and today's flash flooding, I think we can safely say that Dubai's veneer of being a functional city has worn off... or should I say, been washed away in the torrential rain. People have been straggling into my office all day citing insane commute times - it took one woman four hours, from 8 AM to 12 PM, to get here from the neighboring emirate of Sharjah, a drive which sans traffic/flooding/acts of God should take about 30 minutes. Holy crap. As for me, I made it to work in only an hour and a half (normal drive time: 20 minutes), but only after following the lead of a couple brave 4x4s in front of me and off-roading my way past traffic on the shoulder of the highway. That was until the highway itself disappeared, all 5 lanes on my side submerged by a foot of water.
Also, a note to Arab drivers: I know you are a desert-dwelling people. I respect that you are the proverbial fishes out of water in this environment. But for the love of God, you don't need to drive with your hazard lights on just because it's raining. It doesn't make me less likely to hit you. It just makes me completely unable to know when and if you're going to switch lanes. (Not that you were very likely to have signaled anyhow. But at least there would have been a possibility.)
At any rate, I'm optimistic that we may get a "rain day" tomorrow, which would be our second unplanned day off this week. Luckily I have my groceries bought and my "Gossip Girl" downloaded thanks to my day of Bush-prompted house arrest yesterday, so I'm prepared for further hibernation should it come to that.
Honestly!
