Three dead as winter storm batters Lebanon

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Three dead as winter storm batters Lebanon
The Daily Star/Jan. 07, 2015

BEIRUT/TRIPOLI/SIDON: A snow storm sweeping the Levant region cut off roads across Lebanon Wednesday, including the international Beirut-Damascus highway, isolating large areas in the north and east of the country and leaving three people dead. In east Lebanon, two Syrians, including an 8-year-old boy, died in the storm in the outskirts of Shebaa in Mount Hermon on the Syrian border, security sources told the Daily Star.

The sources said the boy, identified as Majid Badawi, and an adult named Ammar Kamal, were among a group of four people who had crossed from the village of Beit Jinn on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon and were on their way to Shebaa when they were caught by the storm. The group had apparently lost their way and ended up near a Lebanese Army checkpoint in the hills overlooking Shebaa, the sources said, adding that the boy’s father, Kheir Badawi, was among the two survivors.
The National News Agency later reported that a third member of the group had also died, without identifying them.

The NNA said heavy snow blocked the vital highway at Dahr al-Baidar, cutting off the Bekaa Valley from the rest of the country, as the stormed intensified Wednesday morning.
The Lebanese Red Cross said it had carried out 231 transport and rescue operations related to the storm since 6 p.m. Tuesday, including car accidents, evacuation of snowed-in motorists and hospital transportation of dialysis patients and pregnant women who were cut off by snow in the Bekaa Valley and north Lebanon.

“We have placed 600 volunteers, more than 100 ambulances and 15 special rescue teams on standby in the various red cross centers across the country,” Red Cross Secretary-General Georges Kettaneh told the Daily Star. Volunteers evacuated several people stuck inside their cars in the area of Kfar Debian in Mount Lebanon, including one person who suffered a fatal heart attack behind the wheel, Kettaneh said. “We are using four-wheel-drive ambulances to access the people, but our cars are not able to reach certain areas that are heavily snowed in,” he said, adding that the Red Cross was coordinating with the Army and municipalities to open certain roads.

Hail fell Wednesday in Beirut where the temperature dropped to less than 6 degrees, a rare occurrence in the capital. The storm caused extensive damage to fruit crops, in particular banana and citrus, across regions in the north and the south. Most mountain roads in the northern province of Akkar and some roads in the highlands of Dinnieh were blocked by snow and were only passable for vehicles equipped with metal chains, the NNA said.

Waves of up to 3 meters high off the coast of Lebanon’s southern-most port city carried little stones and pebbles onto the streets. The storm also broke several shop windows in Tyre.
Rough winds and heavy rains shuttered ports and briefly halted air traffic at Beirut, as the country braced for what is expected to be several more days of heavy winter weather.
Flights at Beirut’s airport resumed after being briefly suspended Tuesday night due to a powerful storm sweeping through Lebanon, a source at the airport said.
The source told The Daily Star operations gradually returned to normal at Rafik Hariri International Airport after storm warnings delayed the arrival of five flights between 6-8 p.m.

The violent storm with strong winds and heavy hail and rainfall, which is expected to last until Sunday, prompted Education Minister Elias Bou Saab to order the closure of schools across the country Wednesday.