DOHA: The massive sandstorm that hit Qatar late on Wednesday led to chaos at emergency medical centres, flight delays and road accidents.
There was an unprecedented spurt in the sale of disposable dust masks, with the neighbourhood stores, or the baqalas, exploiting the situation and retailing them for QR2 each.
Pharmacies reported shortages of inhalers used by asthma patients as stocks were sold out by early yesterday.
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) had to deploy additional staff at its evening clinics to deal with patients complaining of allergies.
Children were most affected as paediatric emergency department of HMC received 1,300 urgent cases between Wednesday night and yesterday afternoon.
HMC’s emergency department struggled as their staff had a hard time dealing with hundreds of people complaining of allergies.
Families and children who had been to Banana Island off the Cornish late on Wednesday evening were left stranded as there was no way they could be ferried back.
Al Sharq quoted one of the stranded as saying they were back only yesterday and somehow managed to get a room for overnight stay. The daily said revellers would do better to enquire about weather forecast before going to the island. “No one informed us of an impending dust storm,” one of the stranded men told the daily.
People had a hard time driving early yesterday to go to their offices as dusty and windy conditions prevailed with all intensity. Schools were closed.
In terms of weather conditions, the worst is over but the receding dust storm will leave in its trail thin layers of dust in the air today, a forecaster said. As a result, it will be a less dusty day today with a little cleaner and cooler northwesterly wind settling in to eventually end the nightmarish dust storm.
The weather forecasters and the Ministry of Interior have asked sea-goers to be careful today due to high tide and dusty and windy conditions.
“The sea will be choppy with northwesterly wind gathering speed from 18 to 35 knots (33km to 65km an hour),” said veteran weather forecaster said Abdullah Al Mannai.
Visibility will remain affected today but not to the extent that was witnessed late on Wednesday and early yesterday, he added. He said day temperatures were expected to be 32 degrees C today and at night the mercury will drop to 21 degrees on average.
Yesterday, flights from Doha were delayed by almost two hours with airlines asking travel agents to inform passengers to report to Hamad International Airport accordingly. Incoming flights were also affected but delays were for 30 minutes on average. For example, Qatar Airways flight QR1370 from Cape Town was expected at 11.15pm instead of 10.50pm. The KLM flight from Muscat, which was also affected by the sandstorm, was delayed by about 36 minutes.
Keeping weather conditions in mind and to prevent accidents, the ministry kept busy Doha roads out of bounds for trucks. Several accidents caused by low visibility were reported from different parts of the country, including one at Al Rafai Flyover near Umm Salal, but there were no casualties.
The Peninsula
