Click here to watch: Jerusalem Gets Hit By Worst Storm Ever
The Jerusalem Municipality said that the city was expected
Friday afternoon to be hit by a wave of stormy conditions
“three times worse” than what has been experienced so
far since late Thursday night. Beginning at approximately
16:00 pm local time, municipality officials told The Times
of Israel that it was urging all residents of the capital and
the surrounding areas to stay indoors as weather
conditions worsen.
“We are expecting a second storm triple the size of the
one we’ve seen now and possibly up to 20 inches of snow,”
said municipality spokesperson Brachie Sprung Friday at
1:30 p.m. “During the storm the highways will remain
closed and all public transportation services will
be suspended.”
The Israel Electric Corporation declared a nationwide
state of emergency Friday as tens of thousands of
homes in Jerusalem and the surrounding region
remained without power amid the severe winter
storm currently besieging the area.
The electric company said it was manning a situation
room to receive reports of outages and was calling
in emergency workers to help restore power to those
affected in certain parts of Jerusalem, Mevasseret Zion,
Har Adar, Abu Gosh and Tzur Hadassah where many
power lines were hit by fallen trees. “We did not
anticipate the storm to be on this scale,” Oren Helman
from the electric company told Channel 2 news.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat turned to IDF Chief of Staff
Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz and Jerusalem District police chief
Yossi Pariente for help in evacuating the motorists.
"We are currently using all means available to save the
people stuck in the storm. Only after the weather calms
will we be able to open all of the roadways in the city,"
Barkat said Fridaymorning, adding that the city was
facing "a battle against a rare storm, the likes of
which we have never seen."
Earlier Friday, Ben Gurion Airport closed briefly as
the unprecedented winter storm — bringing the
heaviest December snows on record to Jerusalem
— continued to batter the country for a third day.
Two incoming flights initially rerouted to Larnaca,
Greece were set to land in Tel Aviv. Police instructed
citizens Friday to stay indoors and avoid driving on
roads, citing life-threatening dangers. The main arteries
leading in to and out of Jerusalem, Highway 1 and
Road 443, were closed off after thousands of people
were left stranded overnight Thursday-Friday by the
heavy snowfall, leading the IDF, the police and volunteers
to launch rescue operations. Police said Friday
morning that a rescue operation on Road 443 was
completed, after rescuers evacuated some 600
travelers from that route.
Crews worked throughout the night and into the morning
to rescue travelers in cars and buses trapped on the
roads, at one point putting out a public call for help
from anybody with a 4X4 vehicle. Around 2,000
people were rescued from vehicles during the night,
according to Israel Radio, and hundreds were
evacuated to shelters set up at convention centers
in the city, including the International Convention Center,
or Binyanei Hauma. The Defense Ministry said it was
sending emergency generators and meals to those
currently at the centers.
On Thursday, the IDF’s elite 669 search and rescue
unit retrieved 10 trapped passengers from a
commercial vehicle that was swept away by flood
waters in Nahal Gerar, north of Beersheba.
The passengers, nine of whom were children, were
airlifted to Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center
in fair condition.
Over 24 hours between Wednesday and Thursday
morning, some 103 millimeters (four inches) of rain
— the monthly average — fell in the capital and
35 mm (1.4 inches) in Tel Aviv. There were several
incidents of people caught in flash floods that
swept their cars away.
WATCH HERE
The stormy weather was expected to persist
into the weekend, with snow reaching elevated
areas as far south as the Negev Desert on Friday.
On Wednesday, high winds, torrential rain and
floods inflicted damage in many areas, with some
injuries caused by flying debris.
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