- In a video posted to his X page on Tuesday, Miami-native Jordan Welch, 26, showed that the the Rolls Royce he was traveling in the Emirate flooded with rainwater
- Are you stranded in Dubai? Let us know: Paul.Farrell@MailOnline.com
A crypto influencer is among the thousands of people stranded in Dubai amid the flood ‘apocalypse’ that brought 18 months worth of rainfall in just a single day.
In a video posted to his X page on Tuesday, Miami-native Jordan Welch, 26, showed that the the Rolls Royce he was traveling in the Emirate flooded with rainwater.
‘We’re stuck in the middle of the road in Dubai,’ Welch wrote. Just like all my friends in crypto… today I am underwater,’ he posted in a follow-up.
He is among the thousands of tourists to the region who have become stuck due to the bizarre weather system.
Controversial American broadcaster Tucker Carlson was also in Dubai this week to interview Telegram CEO Pavel Durov while a crypto conference was also in town, a source confirmed to MailOnline that the former Fox News host left before the storm.
Another video showing Welch hanging out of the window of the Rolls Royce, laughing and gesturing in solidarity with workers on the roads with Eminem’s 2000 ballad Stan playing in the background.
A previous video showed Welch enjoying a typical Dubai vacation, driving supercars, in a helicopter and at a night club.
Welch posts millions of followers across his TikTok, Instagram and YouTube page. It’s been reported that his net worth is in the region of $4 million. A college dropout, Welch made his money through an e-commerce business on Shopify.
Entrepreneur and influencer Jordan Welch is among the thousands of people stranded in Dubai thanks to epic flooding in the region
Welch, a native of South Florida, had been in the Emirate for the past week on vacation
Welch, 26, disclosed that the Rolls Royce that he was traveling became stuck in the water on Monday
This week saw Dubai endure 18 months worth of rain over a single day
‘The problem with many aspiring entrepreneurs is they are ready to quit after their first failed business,’ Welch said in 2018. ‘What they don’t realize is that their failure was a learning experience which will only help them further the next time around.’
That same year, Welch started a software company named Viral Vault which aims to help other aspiring entrepreneurs to set up their own businesses.
On social, Welch illustrates his other ventures into cryptocurrency, NFTs and investments.
MailOnline has reached out to Welch for further comment.
One couple, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to speak freely in a country with strict laws that criminalize critical speech, called the situation at the airport ‘absolute carnage.’
‘You cannot get a taxi. There’s people sleeping in the Metro station. There’s people sleeping in the airport,’ the man said Wednesday.
They ended up getting a taxi to near their home some 30 kilometers (18 miles) away, but floodwater on the road stopped them. A bystander helped them over a highway barrier with their carry-on luggage, they said.
State-run WAM news agency called the rain Tuesday ‘a historic weather event’ that surpassed ‘anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.’
Indoor spaces, not prepared for the flooding, were also seen soaked through with water
A view of the street after heavy rainfall as adverse weather conditions affect daily life in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on April 15, 2024
That’s before the discovery of crude oil in this energy-rich nation then part of a British protectorate known as the Trucial States.
Rain also fell in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. However, the rains were acute across the UAE.
One reason may have been ‘cloud seeding,’ in which small planes flown by the government go through clouds burning special salt flares. Those flares can increase precipitation.
Several reports quoted meteorologists at the National Center for Meteorology as saying they flew six or seven cloud-seeding flights before the rains.
The rains began late on Monday, soaking the sands and roadways of Dubai with some 0.79 inches of rain, according to meteorological data collected at Dubai International Airport.
The storms intensified at around 9am local time on Tuesday and continued throughout the day, dumping more rain and hail onto the overwhelmed city.
By the end of Tuesday, more than 5.59 inches of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours.
An average year sees 3.73 inches of rain at Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel and a hub for the long-haul carrier Emirates.
A clean up operation appeared to be underway early this morning, with authorities deploying tanker trucks out into the streets and highways to pump away the water.
A severe wave of thunderstorms has been hitting most of UAE’s major cities
Waves begin to crash in the road as cars are brought to a standstill in Dubai
An SUV stalls out while trying to pass through standing water in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, April 16, 2024
But the country’s hereditary rulers offered no overall damage information or injury information for the nation, as some slept in their flooded vehicles on Tuesday night.
In Ras al-Khaimah, the country’s northernmost emirate, police said one 70-year-old man died when his vehicle was swept away by floodwater.
Authorities cancelled school and the government instituted a work from home policy as the clean up operation continues.
Emirates said the airline had halted check-in for passengers departing from Dubai itself from 8 a.m. until midnight Wednesday as it tried to clear the airport of transit passengers — many of whom had been sleeping where they could in its cavernous terminals.
‘We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused,’ the airline said on X. ‘Emirates is working hard to restore our scheduled operations.’
Passengers on FlyDubai, Emirates’ low-cost sister airline, also faced disruptions.
Paul Griffiths, the airport’s CEO, acknowledged continued issues with flooding Wednesday morning, saying every place an aircraft could be safely parked was taken.
Some aircraft had been diverted to Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, the city-state’s second airfield.
‘It remains an incredibly challenging time. In living memory, I don’t think anyone has ever seen conditions like it,’ Griffiths told the state-owned talk radio station Dubai Eye.
‘We are in uncharted territory, but I can assure everyone we are working as hard as we possibly can to make sure our customers and staff are looked after.’
Fujairah, an emirate on the UAE’s eastern coast, saw the heaviest rainfall Tuesday with 5.7 inches falling there.
Authorities canceled school and the government instituted remote work again for Wednesday.
Rain is unusual in the UAE, an arid, Arabian Peninsula nation, but occurs periodically during the cooler winter months. Many roads and other areas lack drainage given the lack of regular rainfall, causing flooding.
Meanwhile in neighboring Oman, a sultanate that rests on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, at least 19 people were killed in heavy rains in recent days, according to a statement Wednesday from the country’s National Committee for Emergency Management.
That includes some 10 schoolchildren swept away in a vehicle with an adult, which saw condolences come into the country from rulers across the region.