Holy cities of Mecca-Medina as well as port city of Jeddah are on Red Alert in Saudi Arabia: Torrential downpours amid a brutal storm when water levels reached dangerous heights transformed streets into rivers and swept cars away.

The western part of Saudi Arabia hit by severe flooding, particularly in Mecca, Jeddah, and Madinah, after record-breaking rainfall caused widespread destruction.

 

Torrential cloud bust downpours have turned streets into rivers, submerging cars, flooding highways, and causing major disruptions. 

Torrential downpours amid a brutal storm when a red alert was issued by the Saudi Meteorological Department for these cities where the water levels reached dangerous heights transformed streets into rivers and swept cars away. Footage from the affected regions shows scenes of cars almost completely submerged, with only the tops of their roofs visible above the water. 

The residents were seen abandoning their vehicles and scrambling to safety as water inundated streets in Jeddah, a city already prone to flooding. Similar scenes were recorded in Mecca, the holy city's streets, which have become impassable.

The shocking images on social media taken from the outskirts of the cities showed how cars were almost completely submerged with nothing but the top of their rooves cresting the water line.

The historical fact that Mecca, Madinah, and the port city of Jeddah, which is notorious for flooding was the site of a catastrophic deluge in 2009 in which more than 100 people had died.

This week's heavy rains come months after the Gulf states were battered by record-breaking rainfall in April and May, leaving more than two dozen people dead.

The unverified clips shared on social media showed how major highways in the western Kingdom were overrun by devastating floodwater that cascaded down typically dry and rocky outcrops and swept through cities and towns below.

Residents were seen abandoning their cars in the street to run for safety as other partially submerged vehicles tried to plow through feet of standing water.

Rainstorms and flooding are by no means a rare phenomenon in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, especially in winter.

The city developers and experts are of the view that many cities have famously underdeveloped drainage and sewage systems, with urban planners overseeing the region's rapid development in the late 20th century failing to anticipate the frequency of heavy rainfall - or how such a rapid accumulation of water can impact typically arid terrain.