hail and gale force winds which produced a wall of water that drowned a part of the Tehran Metro system.
Miraculously, no one was killed as rainwater crashed through Line 4 of the Metro system between Azadi Square and Mehrabad Airport, totally filling three stations to the roof and above with water. Anyone who had been in the stations would have been killed, but officials said there were no fatalities and few injuries.
Tehran is not used to much rain and ill equipped to handle it. In the middle of the city, rainwater is guided to a drainage canal called the Mianrud (Middle River), which is supposed to carry water south to the desert.
The rains began Saturday and continued into Sunday for 40 hours. The rainfall was not great by North American standards—only .55 inches (1.4 centimeters), according to the Weather Underground website. But a half-inch over two days is a lot for Tehran, which sits on the edge of a desert. Some news outlets claimed this was the most rain in the capital in a half-century, but no one produced a citation for that claim.
The water flowed into the Mianrud and raced down it. On Sunday, officials said, one wall of the canal near the Metro line gave way under the pressure of all the water. Filthy water then cascaded into the Metro tunnel. All the rainwater from central Tehran was pouring into the tunnel. As more rainwater gathered in the canal, more rushed into the Metro tunnel.
The city mobilized workmen to try to block the canal so more water wouldn’t reach the site of the break. A claw digger pushed dirt, concrete blocks and debris into the canal to try to create a dam across. But the digger got too close to the edge of the canal and fell over the side into the canal.
Pipes were brought to try to draw water out of the canal. Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf personally came to the site and tried to direct the effort, ending up drenched and splattered with mud.
Officials said three Metro stations—Azadi, Moin and Habibollah—were totally filled with water. The water was even rising up the stations’ escalators. Amazingly, no one was trapped below.
Metro control centers were also inundated, with all the equipment engulfed by water and now covered in mud. Most of the equipment will likely have to be replaced. Line 4 is expected to be out of operation for weeks. The other three Metro lines were not impacted.
Deputy Provincial Governor General Mohammad-Reza Mahmudi blamed the mayor for the Metro mess. He said that the city had failed in its responsibility to keep the canal clear of debris so that water in it could flow freely.
Line 4, runs from Mehrabad airport to Azadi Square, then under Enqilab Avenue, Tehran’s main east-west axis, to eastern Tehran. The section of Line 4 that was flooded had just opened last summer.
In addition the rain, hail was reported around the capital. Winds clocked as high as 90 kph (55 mph) also battered the city, knocking down a number of trees.
The police reported 140 traffic accidents and said 16 people were injured seriously enough by weather accidents to be hospitalized.