Rain fear: Jeddah students have a day off 

(MENAFN - Arab News) The fear of heavy rains prompted the majority of schools in Jeddah to give students and staff a day off yesterday and consequently led to traffic jams on most of the streets. Some areas of Jeddah witnessed early morning showers that created water puddles in the streets, but fears of more rain led many school administrations to declare the day off.

Other schools requested parents to pick up their children at around 9:30 a.m., shortly after they had been dropped off to school.

This caused many problems for most families, especially working parents, as there was no one at home to care for the children.

"I received a phone call to my office at around 9 o'clock from the school administration, asking me to pick up my children. The school administration should have announced the day-off early in the morning, as it disturbed my morning work schedule and I was stuck in terrible traffic jam," said Abdul Rahman Shamsi, a parent.

Another parent, Safiya Abdulaziz, described how difficult it was for her to pick up her daughters from school, especially since her husband couldn't leave the office. "There should be a proper system for such situations, if schools are notified by the Ministry of Education to give the day off due to rain, then the school administration should notify parents as soon as possible," she said.

She also said that due to this situation, there was heavy traffic on the roads, which made matters worse for parents and drivers.

The Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) reported that rain was expected starting Monday till Wednesday in Makkah region, Riyadh, the central and northern region, and Al-Qaseem as well.

According to a PME official, there is also a chance of temperatures dropping 4-7 degrees in the central region and 1-3 degrees in the north and northeastern regions of the Kingdom.

By FOUZIA KHAN