Saudi king orders payments to families of flood victims

COMPENSATION ORDER: King Abdullah has ordered an immediate payment of SR1m to the families of each flooding victim. (Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has ordered an immediate payment of SR1 million ($266,000) to the families of each person who died in last week’s flooding in Jeddah.

The king also ordered the setting up of a high-level committee to study the extent of the damage and recommend policies to ensure that it does not happen again, Arab News reported on Tuesday.

“It is painful that many countries, some with even less potential than the Kingdom, experience similar rainfall almost every day, but there are no devastation of the magnitude we witnessed in Jeddah and that saddens us,” he said in comments published by the paper.

He also said that those responsible for this tragedy would be taken to task.

“We cannot ignore the fact that there were mistakes and failures on the part of some departments and it is our duty to identify those responsible and take action against them.”

The official death toll from the heaviest rainfall to hit Saudi Arabia in years rose to 106 on Saturday, with dozens more expected to be found.

The victims were drowned or were killed by collapsing bridges and in car crashes when floodwaters caused by the torrential rainfall ripped through the Red Sea port city of Jeddah on Wednesday.

Makkah governor Prince Khaled Al-Faisal attributed the catastrophe in Jeddah to the delay in implementing drainage projects in the city.

He assured the people of Jeddah that all measures had been taken to deal with any emergency situation.

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