Al-Madinah We have nothing left from rain in Jeddah except fear. We no longer get excited about the coming rain, and we do not benefit from its water. We don't jump around in the raindrops and we don't wish for more while singing: "Oh rain, fall more, fall more." It's been a very long time since have had that beautiful closeness with the richest natural resource. The minute the weatherman announces that rain is coming we begin to get anxious and worry. We start praying for protection and ease. The rain that we once loved has turned into a living nightmare. We should have realized that suspending school meant that the drainage projects we trusted in and believed in after the tragedy of the 2009 floods were really not ready. If these projects had been completed and guaranteed, and if those in charge of them trusted the ability of the projects to control the water levels that flooded our streets before, people would never have been warned to leave their schools and businesses. If these projects had progressed according to the plans and contracts we witnessed and the promises that were made, officials would be joyfully waiting for rain to prove to the people who trusted them that they had been working hard for their interest for six years, which involved the digging and repair of streets. No one would have believed that the horror people experienced in 2009 would be allowed to be repeated, yet it was. When rain was absent for a number of years, a rumor was spread that the General Presidency for Meteorology had operations aimed at dispersing rain clouds so that not much rain would fall and thus expose the large projects that were never successfully completed. But the Municipality of Jeddah and the General Presidency for Meteorology continued to deny these rumors and people were reassured and translated this denial into a feeling that rain was welcome in Jeddah, since the city had been protected from flood dangers. That was three days before the arrival of the recent heavy rains. These rains were a bitter surprise and a large disappointment for people who thought that they would finally be safe. But nothing has changed: the same accumulated water in streets, drowned neighborhoods, broken cars in tunnels and people stuck everywhere waiting for someone to pull them out of these nasty pools of water. How did officials take this so lightly and why did they manipulate people's dreams? How could they make people relive their worst nightmares and so quickly? Why did they not consider the beautiful Bride of the Red Sea being destroyed like this while the world watches criticizing and gloating?
