Authorities have asked flood-affected families who were sheltered in furnished apartments at government's expense after last year's floods, to return to their homes. Aid money will only be paid out to certain affected individuals based on the assessments of the flood committees. The committees will take into account the current condition of their homes. No more new individual will be added to the aid lists, said Col. Abdullah Al-Jiddawi, chief of the Jeddah Civil Defense. Many aid applications have been rejected for various reasons, he added. The Civil Defense organizes the manner in which aid, provided by the Ministry of Finance, is dispensed to the victims, he said. Hussein Majrashi, a flood victim whose home was damaged by the floods, said that the flood committee has visited him three times at his shelter in a furnished apartment and asked him and his family of seven to go back to his house. “There is nothing wrong with your house. It's livable,” he said they told him. “But I don't have the money to help me get started again at a flood-damaged home,” he said. Majrashi said he was even excluded from the aid checks. “I am broke and I can't even afford to buy one single chair,” he said. Majrashi's furniture was all damaged by the floods. He went to Jeddah Governorate to complain, but he was told to go to the Civil Defense Department to be listed for aid. Despite the flood committee's decision that the house was livable, the house is still in a deplorable condition with a falling ceiling and caved-in floor, he said. “You don't have to listen to the story about rats and cockroaches inside the house,” Majrashi said. Majrashi, who suffers from high-blood pressure and diabetes, said he was hospitalized when the flood struck his house. “If they force me to get out of here, I will be thinking everyday of where to take my children,” he said. He asked authorities to help repair his house before he is forced out of his shelter.
