Two killed, several rescued during rains in Oman on Wednesday

Muscat - Heavy unseasonal rains threw life out of gear in the sultanate and rescue teams responded to several calls for help in Batinah and Muscat

A two year old child from Saham was found dead on Wednesday morning after being swept away by flashfloods into a wadi near the Al Mirfa area of Wadi Al Mahmoom in Saham.

According to Hafs al Rawahi, an official from the Public Authority for the Civil Defence and Ambulances (PACDA), the child was found dead almost four hours after being reported missing. “The complaint about the missing child was received by the ROP operations team at 6.40am,” he said. “The child was swept away by the gushing floodwaters,” he said.

A 60 year old Omani man was also found dead in his car at 11.30am in the same wilayat. His car had been washed into a wadi and he drowned after becoming trapped inside.

“A family of eight members was rescued by helicopter after their home in Wadi Al Mahmoom in Saham became cut off,” added Rawahi.
Another person trapped by rapidly rising floodwaters in Wadi Kabir in the Al Iraqi area in Ibri was rescued by an Omani national.

A woman patient from the wilayat of Yanqul had to be transferred by  helicopter to the referral hospital in the wilayat of Ibri, after it became difficult to transport her by road.

A woman was also rescued from her vehicle in Muscat, after she was trapped in one of the wadis near Gulf College in Al Khuwayr.
ROP earlier on Wednesday said that five helicopters had been pressed into service for rescue operations in collaboration with the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) to carry out rescue and search operations.

Rawahi said that a rescue team had rushed from Muscat to Saham to provide additional support to existing search and rescue teams in the North Batinah governorate. 

Source: http://www.muscatdaily.com