The United Arab Emirates announced $544 million to repair the homes of Emirati families on Wednesday after last week’s record rains caused widespread flooding and brought the oil-rich Gulf state to a standstill.
“We learned great lessons in dealing with severe rains,” said Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum after a cabinet meeting, adding that ministers approved “two billion dirhams to deal with damage to the homes of citizens”.
Wednesday’s announcement comes more than a week after the unprecedented deluge lashed the desert country, turning streets into rivers and hobbling Dubai Airport, the world’s busiest for international passengers.
“A ministerial committee was assigned to follow up on this file… and disburse compensation in cooperation with the rest of the federal and local authorities,” said Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the ruler of Dubai, which was one of the worst hit of the UAE’s seven sheikhdoms.
The rainfall, the UAE’s heaviest since records began 75 years ago, killed at least four people, including three Filipino workers and one Emirati. UAE authorities have not released an official toll.
Cabinet ministers also formed a second committee to log infrastructure damage and propose solutions, Sheikh Mohammed said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“The situation was unprecedented in its severity but we are a country that learns from every experience,” he said.
Climatologist Friederike Otto, a specialist in assessing the role of global warming on extreme weather events, told AFP it was “highly likely” that the rainfall “was made heavier by human-caused climate change”.
