Muscat: People dragged soaked bedding and carpets from homes after Cyclone Gonu's rains sent torrents of water and mud surging through Oman's seaside capital, a city often called the Arab world's tidiest.
After pummeling normally hot and dry Oman and Iran's southeastern coast, Gonu weakened to a tropical storm and was expected to dissipate into a rainstorm by Thursday as it moved over the sea toward Iran.
At least 28 people were dead, most of them in Oman, and 26 were missing.
The storm spared the region's oil installations, and oil prices dipped on world markets.
People told of spending a night in fear as turgid water flooded their homes, carrying away refrigerators and furniture and leaving streets gouged by sinkholes and caked in mud.
"The water broke through the walls. It came inside the house. It swept everything out," said Nidhal al-Masharafi, 31, who spent the night on his rooftop with his wife and six children.
Grassy fields lay under several feet of water, and lush palm and eucalyptus groves were flattened. Strong waves still battered a beachfront normally thronged with European tourists, and the usually sparkling blue sea resembled a foamy chocolate milk.
"The capital, Muscat, became a lake," said a spokesman for the Oman Royal Police, Abdullah al-Harthi.
The storm was expected to spare Iran's offshore oil installations, which lie more than 193 km to the west, oil officials and the US military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said.
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