Hi there everyone – Thanks so much for the concern and so sorry to keep some of you in anxiety and worry over our safety here. Today things are back to normal as far as weather is concern. Last Wednesday was the worst . I had my share of the nightmare that hit Oman .There were floods everywhere and the wind was horrible. It was fierce and swept everything that was in its way. I heard that many hospital staffs had their cars swept off and their houses flooded. When I saw what the Tv showed later at the friend's house then only did feel that I was lucky in many ways.
By evening on Wednesday most of the roads turned into rivers and all things in the way were swept off by the current . This included cars, bridges and even roads were torn apart. From the my window I could see the water rising at an alarming rate but I was quite confident that it would not reach my window. I was cut off from my wife and had to live in darkness for two nights. It was a horrible experience for me and of course when I look back now at what I had gone through I know that God was with me. The wind was howling the windows and doors were shaking and all these brought out a horrible terrifying feeling inside me I tried hard to remain collected and plugged up my ears with the earphone to listen to the music from the laptop. What was even more worrying at that time was that the batteries on the laptop and my handphone were getting weaker ; more so my handphone as it was the only line to the outside world. Hence I could read your messages sent but so sorry I couldn't reply as I had to stinge on the power. My home phone can only receive calls and my silent prayer was for the hope that the phone line would not be cut off. My wife was constantly keeping in contact with me through this . Luckily, later , I found out that I was not the the only one in the building. There were six other people and many of them who were in the ground floors shifted up just in case it might flood their home. By Thursday morning the heavy downpour stopped but the wind was still strong until at about 9a.m. It was really a sight to behold – a horrible one to see what wreckages the cyclone had done to our area. Many trees were uprooted , roads were torn apart, cars were wrecked and the roads were covered with mud. Oman like all countries here have very very poor drainage and hence most of the places will definitely succumb to such punishable rainstorm . Many places by the coast and in the lowlands were worst hit. I saw all these with horror later from their local Tv . I am sure you would have seen some from the news section , right ? At midday my wife came with a friend with a 4-wd to rescue me to the uni-campus flats ( the one we formerly stayed ) We put up at a friends flat. She had gone back to Malaysia for holidays . The following night we shifted out to town to stay at a friend's place – a better place and we stayed there for three nights. It's a pity she has no phone line and hence I cannot e-mail . Now we are back in our flat last night after being told that there electricity was reinstalled. Yes, but unfortunately last night it went on and off ; even now. The worst is over and now the govt is putting things back to normal again. We can say that for Muscat, where we stay but Quorum, Rawi and the coastal regions are completely gone . Remember Muttrah ? – the seaside area we visited just before we went back for CNY? Yeah I heard there were lots of casualties there .
Now with the cyclone guno gone we can now heave a sigh a relief !
Thank heaven things are not so bad for us . Now we are looking forward to go back. We are still on the reserve list but I think we will quite likely get it as many of the locals here will cancel their holiday plans and frankly we really hope they will so that we can be on the 26th June flight home.
Bye and again thanks for all the concern shown for us.
By evening on Wednesday most of the roads turned into rivers and all things in the way were swept off by the current . This included cars, bridges and even roads were torn apart. From the my window I could see the water rising at an alarming rate but I was quite confident that it would not reach my window. I was cut off from my wife and had to live in darkness for two nights. It was a horrible experience for me and of course when I look back now at what I had gone through I know that God was with me. The wind was howling the windows and doors were shaking and all these brought out a horrible terrifying feeling inside me I tried hard to remain collected and plugged up my ears with the earphone to listen to the music from the laptop. What was even more worrying at that time was that the batteries on the laptop and my handphone were getting weaker ; more so my handphone as it was the only line to the outside world. Hence I could read your messages sent but so sorry I couldn't reply as I had to stinge on the power. My home phone can only receive calls and my silent prayer was for the hope that the phone line would not be cut off. My wife was constantly keeping in contact with me through this . Luckily, later , I found out that I was not the the only one in the building. There were six other people and many of them who were in the ground floors shifted up just in case it might flood their home. By Thursday morning the heavy downpour stopped but the wind was still strong until at about 9a.m. It was really a sight to behold – a horrible one to see what wreckages the cyclone had done to our area. Many trees were uprooted , roads were torn apart, cars were wrecked and the roads were covered with mud. Oman like all countries here have very very poor drainage and hence most of the places will definitely succumb to such punishable rainstorm . Many places by the coast and in the lowlands were worst hit. I saw all these with horror later from their local Tv . I am sure you would have seen some from the news section , right ? At midday my wife came with a friend with a 4-wd to rescue me to the uni-campus flats ( the one we formerly stayed ) We put up at a friends flat. She had gone back to Malaysia for holidays . The following night we shifted out to town to stay at a friend's place – a better place and we stayed there for three nights. It's a pity she has no phone line and hence I cannot e-mail . Now we are back in our flat last night after being told that there electricity was reinstalled. Yes, but unfortunately last night it went on and off ; even now. The worst is over and now the govt is putting things back to normal again. We can say that for Muscat, where we stay but Quorum, Rawi and the coastal regions are completely gone . Remember Muttrah ? – the seaside area we visited just before we went back for CNY? Yeah I heard there were lots of casualties there .
Now with the cyclone guno gone we can now heave a sigh a relief !
Thank heaven things are not so bad for us . Now we are looking forward to go back. We are still on the reserve list but I think we will quite likely get it as many of the locals here will cancel their holiday plans and frankly we really hope they will so that we can be on the 26th June flight home.
Bye and again thanks for all the concern shown for us.
1 comment:
hi favourite uncle,
thoroughly enjoy reading your musings. your tribute to all the mums in your life literally brought tears to my eyes. keep it coming, looking forward to read your blog and your legacy...
Post a Comment