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Comment by reaperman | Hacker News Reader

The news is reporting on Dubai for clicks due to its name recognition, but Oman is getting it much worse due to mountain/valley geometry similar to Austin.

Having been to both, I was very worried about Oman. It's close to UAE and while the UAE is generally very flat, Oman is quite mountainous - so this much water would be amplified in the valleys and ravines between rises. It looks like Oman+UAE have had 20 deaths confirmed so far, with 18 of those being in Oman.

Geographically, driving around Muscat (capital of Oman, where mountains run right up to the ocean coastline) feels a lot like driving around Austin, very windy and hilly roads with lots of greenery in an arid climate. Culturally, Muscat is a really beautiful city, much more friendly and laid back and colorful than the rest of the Gulf (vs. Saudi/Bahrain/Qatar/UAE/Kuwait).

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I grew up in the Alps and water is indeed much more dangerous in mountainous areas, especially if you happen to live in a place where it rarely rains. Because when it rains all kinds of things will take their path down the mountains.

Now the people in the alps adjusted for that over the centuries of living there, with the price paid in destroyed houses and killed people. Many of those lessons stayed, some had to be relearned, because of hubris.

My parents were recently in Oman and I can't really imagine that the region is prepared for this.

They're used to floods in Muscat - the Muttrah Souq (biggest market, about 5000 vendors) is part of the very historical floodpath and it floods 1-2 feet deep at least annually. Generally the merchants don't lose their merchandise to the floods, even when it was built in the 1800's the shops were raised up several feet and the corridors were built with the intention to channel the flow of floodwater to the sea, just 45 meters from the entrance of the Souq.

But something of this magnitude really never happens, and I agree with you they were likely as unprepared for it as Texas would be for 8 inches of snow.

A photo of the market from earlier this year: https://www.omanobserver.om/article/1149558/oman/weather/tim...

2014 TripAdvisor report: https://en.tripadvisor.com.hk/ShowUserReviews-g1940497-d5022...

They were not so lucky during Cyclone Shaheen in 2021 which had 15 meters of swell -- obviously with one of the main entrances to the souq just 45 meters from the sea that was not kind to them. https://www.omanobserver.om/article/1149558/oman/weather/tim...

I lived in much smaller mountains. Our house was just by a river about a mile from the start of the mountain side.

Whenever there was a lot of rain up the mountains, my parents would keep watch during the night as it takes as little as 20 minutes from the start of rain to the wall of water reaching our location.

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