BEIRUT: Heavy rains flooded the streets of Beirut and its suburbs Friday, blocking traffic into the capital, slowing both sides of the coastal highway from north to south Lebanon and marking the end of the summer season.

Precipitation caused water levels to rise as early as 10:30 a.m., flooding the streets of Beirut and causing several vehicles to stall and obstruct traffic.

Many commuters abandoned their cars in the middle of traffic, opting to walk to work.

Those commuting from the north into Beirut faced heavy congestion stretching from the coastal town of Dbayyeh to Karantina, where water was gathering in pools.

Traffic in the southern and eastern suburbs of Beirut, in Shiyah and Sin al-Fil respectively, saw similar challenges.

The flood waters also entered several houses and ravaged warehouses and underground parking in the capital and its surrounding area.

In the north, the amount of precipitation varied from one region to another.

While the coastal city of Tripoli saw mild rain for an hour, the mountainous areas of Bsharri, Zghorta, Akkar and Dinnieh experienced heavy showers.

To prevent flooding, employees from the Municipality of Tripoli rushed to clean the mouth of the Abu Ali river of garbage that had accumulated into meter-high piles since the last cleaning process a year ago.

The municipality’s personnel also launched a full-scale campaign to collect trash from the streets to avoid the clogging of the sewage networks.

The municipality rented several bulldozers to collect garbage from the river and place it into trucks bound for the city’s dump.

Tripoli Mayor Nader Ghazal said the cleaning operation was costly, but that the municipality needed to take the measures to prevent any health and environmental hazards. Ghazal urged owners of shops and institutions located near the river to refrain from dumping trash into it.

The mountainous area of Zghorta, which saw heavy rain, was also the scene of clean-up efforts to open clogged sewage networks.

Unlike most residents of Beirut and other coastal regions, farmers in the mountainous regions of north Lebanon welcomed the rainfall.

Farmers said the irrigation of olive and apple trees would boost their growth and increase the amount of olive oil extracted. Others welcomed the benefits of rainfall on urban areas, such as decreasing air pollution and washing dust from the streets.

Despite heavy rainfall and strong wind, activity at the port of the southern coastal city of Sidon resumed shortly after the storm eased in the afternoon. As usual, sea waves carried garbage from Sidon’s dump to the shore.

Some cafe tents on the coastline were damaged and some residents got trapped in their cars for hours in the city’s flooded streets.