The death toll from the Makkah floods has increased to six after the Civil Defense found a girl that had been registered as missing under the ruins of a collapsed wall of a football field. Teams of the Civil Defense and the mayoralty carried out other rescue and repair operation after the damage caused by Saturday's floods. A land developer has been held responsible for the tragic deaths of six members of the same family after heavy rains caused an apparently poorly built wall to collapse on them. Details are sketchy at this stage, but it appears that the water pressure from the recent heavy rains had caused the wall of a building to collapse at a football playground in the Al-Ka'kiyah District in Makkah Saturday night. The family consists of a father, mother and four children. On Sunday, the authorities blamed the investor responsible for the poorly built building where the tragedy took place and took him in for questioning. Officials from the Committee for Dilapidated Buildings said that all the buildings in the unplanned districts are run-down and likely to collapse at any time, especially those close to where the family died. Engineer Abdul Kareem Al-Zahrani, Assistant Chairman of the Committee for Dilapidated Buildings, said that the committee would soon demolish five dangerous buildings in the holy city. The committee had already demolished 50 rundown buildings. Al-Zahrani said the building where the family died had been poorly built. He said that when it rained the wall was subjected to water pressure causing it to collapse. He said the committee would issue its engineering report Monday. He warned that many of the buildings close to the scene of the disaster are likely to collapse because they had been constructed in a haphazard manner. Meanwhile, there have been reports of 50 people marooned by the floods in Makkah. Many cars, houses and government facilities were also damaged because of the rainwater. Observers said Makkah's infrastructure and storm-water drainage networks, that covers 60 percent of Makkah's urban area, had saved the region from catastrophe. They said the networks had proved to be effective especially in the districts of Al-Azizia, Al-Ma'abidah, Al-Sitteen and the Central Area surrounding the Grand Mosque. Dr. Osama Bin Fadhl Al-Bar, Makkah's Mayor, told Okaz that despite 43mm of rain falling, the drainage system had coped with the deluge. Al-Bar said that some areas that had been flooded in the past, including the Kuday Area and Al-Mansour, Al-Haj and Qasr Al-Dhiafa (Guests Palace) streets, have not been inundated with flood water because of the effective drainage system. However, Dr. Faisal Al-Shareef, a member of the Makkah Municipal Council said that there are shortcomings in the floodwater drainage projects. In its upcoming session, he said the municipal council would demand that the mayoralty provide the council with a comprehensive report on the performance and efficiency of the floodwater drainage projects during the recent rains. Maj. Gen. Adel Zamzami, Director of the Civil Defense in the Makkah Region said that they have drawn up hazard analysis maps on which they have plotted the locations where rainwater is likely to collect. These maps help the Civil Defense to deploy their personnel to these locations if there is a danger of heavy rain, he said. Meanwhile, 400 Chinese workers have stopped working on the Haramain Train project's main station on the Makkah-Al-Hada Road where pools of water had formed four hours after the deluge. In Taif, the mayoralty has drained more than 5,000 cubic meters of water collected in different areas after the heavy downpour. The mayoralty has mobilized its vehicles and workers to these locations. The workers are working around-the- clock especially at places with no drainage networks.
