DUBAI, April 24, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - 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, where it turned streets into rivers and
hobbled 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.

The storm -- which dumped up to two years' worth of rain on the UAE, a
federal monarchy with a 90 percent expatriate population -- had subsided by
last Wednesday.

But the glam-hub of Dubai, touted as a picture-perfect city, faced severe
disruption for days later, with water-clogged roads and flooded homes.

Dubai airport cancelled 2,155 flights, diverted 115 and did not return to
full capacity until Tuesday.

"We must acknowledge... that there has been an unreasonable and unacceptable
deficiency and collapse in services and crisis management," prominent Emirati
analyst Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said Wednesday on X.

"We hope that this will not be repeated in the future," he added, in a rare
public rebuke.

Climatologist Friederike Otto, a specialist in assessing the role of global
warming on extreme weather events, told AFP it was "high likely" that the
rainfall "was made heavier by human-caused climate change".