Family sleep on Dubai shopping mall floor after flooding (2024)

A British family have been forced to sleep on the floor of a shopping mall in Dubai overnight after being caught in flooding that has caused travel chaos in the Emirate.

The city was left under feet of water after year and a half's worth of rain was dumped on it in a matter of hours, with people forced to abandon their luxury carsin the streets.

Jonathan Rodgers, who is in the city with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, told MailOnline they were forced to sleep on the floor of the Mall of the Emirates overnight as rising waters made it impossible to leave.

The family-of-three, along with dozens of others, became trapped when the roads around the building were flooded and all Dubai Metro services were cancelled due to the conditions.

He said they had been left on their own with 'no information' for hours on end with 'customers and staff all stranded together'.

Were caught in the storm in Dubai?Email matthew.lodge@mailonline.co.uk

To add insult to injury, staff at the mall closed the toilets during the night, he claimed.

And despite the waters receding to an extent, the roads are still impassable as there is 'no way past ambulance and recovery vehicles stranded in the road', he said.

His words were echoed by Abi Cramp, who is stuck in the city after flying out to celebrate a friend's birthday.

She said: 'Yesterday felt like the apocalypse. There was a point when we looked outside during the middle of the afternoon - it was pitch black as the wind and rain pelted the windows while lightning cracked the sky.

'The pictures don't do it justice, but it did feel like something out of the The Day After Tomorrow.

'The aftermath felt like the Titanic. Most of the roads are flooded. We had to scale walls to avoid wading through calf-high puddles.

'Most car parks are underwater, and the city was like a ghost town when we headed to get dinner.'

She added that her flight home has already been delayed after the plane was diverted to Kuwait as it could land at the airport.

British YouTuber Calvin Fehr, who was in the city on business, shared his ordeal trying to leave the city as his flight back to the UK was delayed for hours.

Posting on TikTok, the car dealer, shared videos of torrential rain on the runway at Dubai International Airport as the Emirates aircraft he was on stood idle with 'waves going around us'.

'Literally, the whole runway is one big puddle', he told his fans.

'We are on an Emirates flight from Dubai to London Heathrow, it was meant to take off four hours ago and look out the window, we've got flood sin Dubai at the minute, and the whole airport is flooded.

'The weather's been terrible, the rain's calmed down a little bit now but we not really got any indication of what's going on. Fun and games.

The weather's been amazing all week and then this morning it started chucking it down. Everyone's getting a bit impatient.'

After finally taking off he shared aerial footage of the city showing huge traffic jams with vehicles unable to get through the floodwater.

The delays to departures left passengers trying to transit through Dubai to Europe frustrated.

Writing on X, one person who was trying to make their way to Britain, vented their frustration at their airline 'leaving us in limbo'.

The chaos also meant delays and cancellations for those travelling to Dubai.

One plane of British Airways customers were frustrated after being left stuck more than 540 miles away from their destination in Kuwait as they could not land.

Annalisa Macklin tweeted: 'Stuck at Kuwait airport instead of Dubai - no staff on the ground. What is going on???'

Dubai's airport, which is the world's busiest air hub for international passengers, confirmed a halt to arrivals at around 3.30pm GMT before announcing a 'gradual resumption' over two hours later.

A total of 17 inbound and outbound flights were cancelled during the morning and three were diverted, Dubai Airports said in a statement.

Shocking video showed several jets cutting through murky water at Dubai International Airport, as the huge aircraft appeared to be floating through the water in footage that went viral on social media.

However, the knock on effects are still being felt, with astatement shared by Dubai airport operators on social media this morning reading: 'We advise you NOT to come to the airport, unless absolutely necessary.Flights continue to be delayed and diverted.

'Please check your flight status directly with your airline. We are working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions.'

Outside the walls of the airport, footage from those trapped in the wet conditions contains video and images that resemble an apocalyptic world.

Abandoned cars were left to gather and pile up as they remain submerged in heavily flooded roads.

A handful of brave drivers battling the elements were spotted sitting atop their roofs and waiting for rescue under the black sky.

The deep pools of water overtook streets lined with luxury vehicles which have been seen floating aimlessly after their drivers scrambled for escape.

A clip shared on X early on Tuesday showed entrepreneur and YouTuber Jordan Welch trapped in his Rolls Royce in Dubai as deep water flooded the road.

'My Rolls Royce got flooded and we're stuck in the middle of the road in Dubai,' he wrote.

'Just like all my friends in crypto... today I am underwater,' he posted in a follow-up.

Unstable weather conditions are expected to continue in the region through to Wednesday, UAE's National Center of Meteorology said.

In neighbouring Oman at least 18 people are known to have died after the same storm caused heavy flooding, with others still missing.

The rains began late on Monday, soaking the sands and roadways of Dubai with some 0.79 inches of rain, according to meteorological data collected at Dubai International Airport.

The storms intensified at around 9am local time on Tuesday and continued throughout the day, dumping more rain and hail onto the overwhelmed city.

Above the city, Dubai's skies - usually electric blue and cloudless - darkened to night-like conditions in mid-afternoon as a second storm front blew in.

Lightning flashed across the sky on Tuesday, occasionally touching the tip of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.

And patio furniture was seen falling from high-rise buildings as strong winds rocked the city through Tuesday.

By the end of Tuesday, more than 5.59 inches of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours.

An average year sees 3.73 inches of rain at Dubai International Airport.

Police and emergency personnel drove slowly through the flooded streets of Dubai, their emergency lights shining across the darkened roads.

The city's driverless Metro saw disruptions and flooded stations.

Schools across the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, largely shut ahead of the storm and government employees were largely working remotely if able.

Many workers stayed home as well, though some ventured out, with the unfortunate stalling out their vehicles in deeper-than-expected water covering some roads.

Authorities sent tanker trucks out into the streets and highways to pump away the water. Water poured into some homes, forcing people to leave their houses.

The country's hereditary rulers offered no overall damage information or injury information for the nation, as some slept in their flooded vehicles on Tuesday night.

In Ras al-Khaimah, the country's northernmost emirate, police said one 70-year-old man died when his vehicle was swept away by floodwater.

Fujairah, an emirate on the UAE's eastern coast, saw the heaviest rainfall on Tuesday with 5.7 inches falling there.

Authorities cancelled school and the government instituted remote work again for Wednesday.

Rain is unusual in the UAE, an arid, Arabian Peninsula nation, but occurs periodically during the cooler winter months. Many roads and other areas lack drainage given the lack of regular rainfall, causing flooding.

Rain also fell in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

In neighbouring Oman, a sultanate that rests on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, at least 18 people had been killed in heavy rains in recent days, according to a statement on Tuesday from the country's National Committee for Emergency Management.

That includes some 10 schoolchildren swept away in a vehicle with an adult, which saw condolences come into the country from rulers across the region.