«أمانة جدة»: جاهزون عند أي تنبيه أمطار صادر من المركز الوطني للأرصاد

The Jeddah Municipality confirmed its utmost readiness for any rainfall alert issued by the National Center of Meteorology, regardless of its severity, which is taken very seriously in 15 fully equipped support centers distributed near critical locations and the roads leading to these sites.

The municipality clarified that the plans for dealing with rainy conditions in the General Administration for Emergencies and Crises at the Jeddah Municipality are not spontaneous; rather, they were developed after a series of hypotheses, experiments, and lessons learned from each rainy event experienced by the governorate, in addition to parallel experiences from various cities across the Kingdom. Moreover, these plans are subject to continuous updates throughout the year.

7 Field, Desk, and Operational Hypotheses

It was indicated that through approximately (7) hypotheses implemented by the Jeddah Municipality, both in the field and in desk and operational settings, and others in collaboration with relevant authorities, the Crisis and Disaster Center aims to identify operational gaps and areas for improvement, enhance the readiness of personnel, promote integrated work and knowledge transfer, and improve decision-making speed and accuracy of information exchange, in addition to developing more flexible and realistic response scenarios.

Preparation Phase

The Director of the Crisis and Disaster Center at the Jeddah Municipality, Faisal Aiban, pointed out that the first steps in dealing with rainy conditions include preparations before the rainy season, termed the "Preparation Phase." He added that this phase includes a set of proactive measures aimed at raising the level of readiness and reducing potential risks by reviewing and updating emergency plans related to rainy conditions in accordance with operational developments, based on lessons learned from hypothetical exercises and previous parallel experiences in other areas.

Aiban explained that during this phase, early coordination is conducted with relevant entities, identifying critical locations, water gathering points, valleys, and flood channels monitored since the last season, in addition to including newly identified critical points and prioritizing them, followed by updating risk maps. He emphasized the readiness of field teams, equipment, machinery, support centers, and rainwater drainage networks and channels before the rainy season begins, as well as subjecting them to regular maintenance and testing, in addition to conducting internal and external awareness campaigns to raise awareness of preventive measures and testing communication channels and information exchange mechanisms between the operations center and partner entities through operational hypothetical exercises.

Operations and Emergency Center

Regarding alerts from the National Center of Meteorology through the automated early warning system, the Operations and Emergency Center at the Jeddah Municipality works on receiving and analyzing the alert in terms of severity, accompanying impacts, and the geographical and temporal scope of the rainy condition. After completing the analysis of the alert, it is disseminated to the departments and relevant entities within the municipality, according to the approved communication matrix (email, wireless network, and direct phones), ensuring the presence of personnel and machinery stationed at support centers, while continuously monitoring reports of new cases in the centers and their needs.

He stated that raising the appropriate level of readiness for monitoring, preparedness, and response largely depends on the degree of the alert; however, readiness is at its peak with any alert in anticipation of sudden changes in severity.

Red Alert

In the event that the rainy condition is placed under a red alert, he confirmed that all the municipality's resources are concentrated in support centers 120 minutes at most before the onset of the condition, and enhancing critical locations and priority areas such as hospitals, tunnels, and main streets with equipment 60 minutes at most before the onset of the condition. He added that as soon as the rain begins, the rainy condition is monitored operationally and in the field continuously through the Operations and Emergency Center.

Faisal Aiban confirmed the monitoring of rainwater drainage networks and critical locations, in addition to receiving and prioritizing reports, supporting field teams, making decisions to escalate the response when necessary, and informing relevant authorities and decision-makers of developments. He noted that the assessment of damages and operational observations, as well as the prompt removal of water from affected sites and addressing them according to priority, has become faster than before, as the Jeddah Municipality continues to restore conditions to normal as soon as the rainy condition ends, in coordination with the relevant departments and specialized authorities, pointing out that reports are prepared that also include performance evaluations and lessons learned, through which work begins to update plans and procedures again for application in future rainy conditions.

It is worth mentioning that the field teams that carry out their work in response to rainy conditions operate within the scope of (11) municipalities and (15) support centers, reinforced by (7160) personnel and (1621) pieces of equipment and machinery.