Cyclone Phet

Cyclone Phet was downgraded to a Tropical Storm yesterday. There was lots of heavy rain in Muscat that caused the wadis to flow. Buildings in the wadis were inevitably flooded. There's this big mall called the CCC centre here in Qurum that was once more flooded as well as the Mc Donald's near it. In Gonu three years ago the water covered all of the fast food outlet but this time the water was half way up. Still a lot of damage I'd say to their equipment and the lot. I think they make enough money that this is just a minor glitch to their operation. Otherwise the south of Oman where Sur is, there were pictures uploaded by people there showing a lot of houses were flooded. Once more that poor city suffers from the floods. We drove around Qurum and Al Khuwair areas this morning and I must say it's impressive how the roads have already been cleaned or in the process of being cleaned by government employed labourers. I must give it to the government they obviously learned from the last cyclone. Luckily the rain stopped last night and the water has receded in the wadis. We were actually on the beach as if nothing happened there. They had built a bridge in Qurum so that the water ran freely under it into the ocean. It was just completed a few months ago so that was lucky. Last time it was a road that blocked off the wadi and marsh area that when it flooded the water basically washed the road away. There's roadworks in many areas that are obviously aimed at alleviating the waterways to run straight to the ocean and not block the wadis no longer. Unfortunately some of those road works would be slowed down by the flooding so far. I hope not many suffered from this cyclone and that it dissipates before it hits Pakistan.