As if they never left the Philippines.

Overseas Filipino Workers in Saudi Arabia, surprised by the heavy rains which resulted in heavy flooding in some areas in the oil-rich kingdom in the past few days, were also reminded of their perennially-flooded home country.

“Talagang nakaka-homesick tuloy lalo dahil sa feeling ko nasa Pinas ako except na wala ang mga loved ones,” Riyadh-based John Leonard Monterona said in an e-mail.

“Usually rains here come once in a blue moon and also not this heavy. This is very rare dahil hindi naman ganito usually kalakas ang ulan sa Saudi,” he added.

The cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar were again experiencing heavy rains Friday morning, he said, although rains were usual during the winter season in the Middle East country.

Wednesday’s downpour reportedly was the heaviest in years during the Hajj, swamping Jeddah with 2.76 inches of rainfall which is more than it usually gets in an entire year. The flooding reportedly killed at least 77 people, mostly Hajj pilgrims.

The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca (Makkah) and is the fifth pillar of Islam, an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so.

“Good thing that there were no OFWs among the reported casualties. But still we are calling all Filipino pilgrims to take extra care,” said Monterona, the regional coordinator of Migrante-Middle East, the alliance of OFW organizations in the Middle East.