Get ready for the 'other' storm: Wet and wild weather on the way - Haaretz

Subscribe to Print Edition

Tue., January 29, 2008 Shvat 22, 5768

Israel Time: 01:47 (EST+7)

web haaretz.com

Back to Homepage

Rosner's Domain

Diplomacy

Defense

Jewish World

Opinion

National

Print Edition

Advertising

Books

Arts & Leisure

Business

Real Estate

Easy Start

Travel

Week's End

Anglo File

Get ready for the 'other' storm: Wet and wild weather on the way

By Haaretz Staff

Stormy, wet, cold weather will prevail throughout the country in the next three days. Snow will fall on Mount Hermon and possibly on mountains in the central region and the Negev. Jerusalem and the northern communities are bracing for snow while the airports have been put on special snow and storm alert.

Two homeless people died in Tel Aviv and Bat Yam yesterday, probably due to the fierce cold. The police have not yet released their names.

	Advertisement

At about 6 A.M. yesterday the Dan region Magen David Adom station received a report of a body lying on Tel Aviv's Nadav Street.

"We found a man in his 50s lying on his stomach. It seemed clear he had frozen to death," paramedic Yaniv Riz said. The man apparently had collapsed hours earlier, but nobody noticed him. "His frozen hand clutched a bag with bread in it so tightly that we had great difficulty prying it out," Riz said.

Police said the man was known as a beggar in the area.

Another man thought to be in his 30s was found dead in the garbage bin area of a building in Bat Yam's Nordau Street. The medical rescue team that was called in said he probably died of hypothermia, although he was wearing several sweaters and a coat and was covered with a duvet. He was surrounded by bottles of alcoholic drinks.

An woman of 83 died of hypothermia in Western Galilee Hospital, Nahariya, on Sunday. Seven other elderly people who were brought in with hypotheria are still hospitalized.

In Kfar Shamai in the Upper Galilee MDA paramedics yesterday came to the rescue of a resident suffering from hypothermia after his body temperature had dropped to 28 degrees.

MDA said that so far in the current cold spell more than 10 people have died of cold and more than 20 people were taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia, either the elderly or small children.

The rain, which is expected to sweep from the North through the country up to the Northern Negev, accompanied by strong winds.

Snow is expected to fall in the northern mountains at night and may spread to the center. Tomorrow will still be colder than usual and the stormy weather will continue. By Thursday the rain will weaken and stop, and Friday will be warmer.

The Airport Authority has put all airports on alert but no changes have been made in any of the flights' scheduled so far. Ben-Gurion managers and workers have been briefed about possible weather hazards. The authority said that the Uvda airfield in the southern desert is ready to receive flights if they cannot land at other airports because of the weather.

Representatives of the Winograd Committee, which is to release its report on the Second Lebanon War tomorrow evening, have asked the mayor's office in Jerusalem to make sure the snow is cleared from the roads to the Prime Minister's Office and the International Convention Center (Binyenei Hauma), where the committee is scheduled to hold a news conference.

The committee has also asked for a car with snow chains for two of its members who live in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolyanski said more than 500 kilometers of roads leading to hospitals and neighborhoods will be cleared and kept open in any weather. The city will also spread salt on main thoroughfares, while the social services will seek out the elderly, the homeless and others with special needs to help them cope with the cold.

Volunteer organizations will provide transport for needy or handicapped people, as well as for brides, grooms and mohels.

Several Galilee communities yesterday prepared tractors and snow ploughs to clear roads that might be blocked by snow. The Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) has beefed up its maintenance and work crews in the North and equipped them with vehicles with snow chains.

Bookmark to del.icio.us


	Pride of Shas
	Shas MK: Gays are causing Israeli society to self-destruct.


	In bad taste
	Local Jewish group protests 'Holocaust float' at Rio Carnival.

Today Online


	Obama: Opponents trying to weaken my support among Jews
	Responses: 266


	In final State of the Union, Bush calls for democratic Palestine
	Responses: 101


	Abbas: Gaza border row shows Hamas disregard for Palestinian needs
	Responses: 90


	Shas MK: Gays are causing Israeli society to self-destruct
	Responses: 39


	Amir Oren: Hamas has made a mockery of Olmert, Barak
	Responses: 42

More Headlines
20:27 PM: South is at war and many Israelis don't feel it


23:54 Day before Lebanon report, it's business as usual at the PMO


22:54 European Jewish leader: World Jews should have say in Israeli politics


23:54 Peres urges world youth to fight anti-Semitism using Facebook


01:02 Hezbollah official threatens to kidnap additional IDF soldiers


01:08 UN envoy: Women in Gaza feel coerced to cover their heads


01:45 Olmert mulls putting up fence on border with Egypt


23:44 Libya rescinds bid for UN condemnation of Israeli blockade on Gaza


22:07 Air and sea ports suffer as stormy weather sweeps across Israel


20:18 Shas MK: Gays are causing Israeli society to self-destruct


21:22 Local Jewish group protests 'Holocaust float' at Rio Carnival


20:35 Despite few public events, Germany remembers Hitler's rise to power


20:50 T.A. mayor to PM: Help treat African refugees before crisis erupts