Driving (rain) in Cairo

I haven't driven in Cairo - it is terrifying enough as a passenger under normal conditions. Conditions were nothing like normal this past weekend, however, when the ten minutes of rain turned many Cairo streets into rivers.

I heard the rain while at home in Maadi. It was accompanied by such howling wind and window rattling that I was repeatedly startled by the racket. The actual amount of water, however, could not have been more than half an inch, especially considering that the average annual in Cairo hovers around an inch.

The rain ended and I found the streets of Maadi to be a bit damp, but otherwise normal. I walked, unconcerned, to the metro to meet Number Two in Heliopolis. When I came out of the train, however, this is what I saw.*



The street in front of the metro station was so full of water that parked cars were floating away. Number Two was standing on the opposite side of the square from me, and to reach her I first clambered atop some walls flanking the street, then toddled over to cross the first of three streets between us. Here, people had helpfully placed tiny bricks across the street. They peeked out above the water, but were too small for certain giant feet, especially giant feet under the pressure of approaching cars (of course people were still driving through the flooded streets. I am sure they had Important Places to Be, like the movie I was headed to see). So I waded across that street, then hopped across another before wading the third. By that time, my shoes were already soaked so I didn't even bother to try the bricks, much to the consternation of onlookers.



We then caught a taxi on one of the drier streets and continued on our merry way, driving through some river/streets ourselves. Apparently this sort of flooding happens about twice a year in Cairo, despite (or perhaps because of) the afforementioned super-low annual rainfall.





In other driving news, the below driving school is on the street near my house. Thanks to the sign, we can now answer the age-old question: What did Pharaohs drive? The answer: Hummers.

I'll give the Pharoahs this: a Hummer would probably have done quite well in the flooded streets over the weekend. But what about the other 360 days of the year?



* These are not my pictures - I decided at the last minute not to bring my camera that day. Thankfully, someone else did not forget to do so.