Big Jets In Dubai Turn Into Sea Planes As Severe Flooding Shuts Down Airport – And The Whole City

by Gary Leff

The UAE has been hit by severe weather, leading to significant disruptions and urgent public warnings. The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority advised residents to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary.

Dubai International Airport experienced severe flooding and a temporary halt in operations. Aircraft were unable to move effectively through the inundated tarmac.

Traffic was heavily impacted, with major roads inundated. The weather event also uprooted trees. People spent the entire day indoors with impassible roads, finding themselves walking through the floods when cars broke down.

When I was in Dubai several months ago we had what were, at the time, considered unprecedented storms and my room at the Park Hyatt was even flooded.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Get a junk ticket … on a junk airline … ride with junk escorts … go to a junk place .

  2. Yikes! just make sure you don’t buy any ‘used’ cars from Dubai anytime soon !!

  3. Lol. 2 years ago we were in Dubai over Christmas and it started misting. People actually stopped to look at it.

  9. I was in Dubai and Abu Dhabi today and the storms wete fierce. Many roads flooded and my Uber driver got trapped in high warer under a viaduct. Had to walk to safety through the water. My hotel room is on the 10th floor so should be high enough up. At the Liuvre the guests weren’t allowed to leave for 30 minutes after closing for their own safety

  10. I’m currently here! Using miles to fly here, a few days ago, and points for the hotels. I got stuck in traffic this afternoon, and it took me 4h to complete a 20 minute drive. Hundreds of abandoned cars everywhere. Six lanes turning into one. Zero police, firefighters and ambulances. Total chaos.

  11. @Suleiman, In my case two police cars showed up within a couple of minutes. There wasn’t much they could do, thiugh, except radio the location. They would have been stranded too if they tried to reach us. I think the police contacted a bus in the area, because it was at the curb on the road other passengers and I were walking in search of a way to the central city. It pulked out just after a family of four got on. My driver was simply over optimistic about his vehicle’s capabilities. I think it depends on where emergency vehicles were located in relation to impassable water and stranded mitorists.

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