A tweet that misled Jeddah residents

Ahmad Al-Kanani Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — A crowd of citizens gathered outside the Civil Defense office in Jeddah’s Rehab district on Friday following an official tweet which said that compensation will be given for damages caused to houses and vehicles by the heavy rain which lashed Jeddah and neighboring areas on Tuesday. “I went to the Civil Defense office in Briman District as it was near my house, but they told me to go to the office in Rehab as the Damage Control Unit there is responsible for compensations. “I went to the office in Rehab to be surprised with a crowd of people standing outside waiting for it to open,” said Fahad Al-Otaibi. Sultan Al-Ghamdi said he read the Civil Defense tweet and went to the office to receive compensation but found the office closed. “The Civil Defense posted names and contacts of officers to be contacted. When we contacted the officers, they were surprised by our requests. They said they had no idea and no connection to the Damage Control Unit and that there is nothing that they can do,” said Al-Ghamdi. Abdullah Al-Samdani said the people are confused about the Civil Defense tweet. “When we enquired, we were told that the Damage Control Unit is not responsible for damages caused by rain. It is responsible for compensation from fire and drowning only,” said Al-Samdani. Efforts to contact the Jeddah Civil Defense official spokesman Col. Saeed Sarhan failed. Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense announced on Wednesday that thunderstorms and flooding along the Red Sea coast claimed the lives of 12 people over the past two days, half of them children. Saudis took to social media to share videos and pictures of flooded streets and high winds. The Jeddah region received the highest level of 22 millimeters of rain on Tuesday. Many people voiced their concerns on Twitter with a number of hashtags circulating on the current Jeddah floods and posting comments, recalling the 2009 flash floods which caused many casualties.