What's Been and What's Ben

Previously I had only felt one drop of rain in Saudi Arabia that passed between my fingers. This time I stood out on my balcony partially dressed (my upstairs balcony is more private) standing in a legitimate downpour. It was a very cold rain.

It rained four inches. 48 People have died so far in Jeddah, Mecca, and Rabigh. None of the dead are among the 3 million religious pilgrims attended the Hajj. It typically rains an inch a year – if at all. The campus was flooded a bit. The hotel where the female students live was evacuated. Water is leaking from my ceiling still, although my apartment survived for the most part. The tape drives for Shaheen (KAUST supercomputer, ranked 14 in the world) were ruined, although the computer survived. The clean room is supposedly flooded, although the sanitation of the room used for making semiconductor devices like computer chips, solar cells, and LEDs was already compromised because of an accidental treatment with chemicals by pest exterminators. I was told that KAUST buildings had flooded before during a storm that occurred before the students arrived. Below are some pictures of rain, a flooded street just after the storm passed, my duct tape system for collecting the water running down my wall, a flooded street out on the island, and a car that got owned by a concrete sunshade thingy. Several friends have been moved to new apartments because of ceiling collapses. I worry about my friends that went on the Hajj because they left just before the storm so they don’t know if their apartments are damaged. Estimates put the number of students leaving after this semester at 100.
My friend Dan took some great pictures and wrote a good blog entry about the flood.