Storms and damage in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq
Regional, Local, 1/22/2000

Lebanon expects a new cycle of storms coming from northern Europe. The storm cycle is the third within one week and temperatures have fallen under the annual average. It rains heavily and snows on areas of 700 meters height and above.

To avoid more losses, meetings for high-ranking officials were held in Beirut and other Lebanese provinces to coordinate with the aim of avoiding incidents similar to those took place in the storms of last Tuesday and on Thursday and resulted in huge material losses estimated at millions of Lebanese pounds.

The heavy rainfall, which started early at dawn on Thursday, led to a state of confusion among citizens in most of the Lebanese areas in Mount Lebanon, the north, the south, the Bekaa and Beirut, where streets drowned in water which also covered the lower-level streets and caused the collapse of walls and balconies.

Although protective measures were taken, the heavy rainfall isolated several areas in Mount Lebanon, the storm stopped work at the state-run establishments, especially in the city of Baalbeck, and people stayed at home in most Lebanese areas and children did not go to school.

The rains and winds which hit the southern region caused great damage to the properties and the greenhouses and the citrus and banana orchards situated along the coasts of Tyre and al-Zahrani.

The storm also uprooted very old trees in Hasbaya district.

Similar damage was inflicted on plants and greenhouses in the western Bekaa and Rashayya. Electricity and telephone lines were damaged, while stones and soil cut off Beirut-Tripoli road in al-Dubeyeh area.

In Yahshoush town in Keserwan a huge stone hit a house, resulting in destroying two rooms and wounding the people of the house.

Lebanese Minister of Health Dr. Karam Karam instructed all Lebanese hospitals to receive all emergency cases at the expense of the Ministry of Health. The minister of water resources and electricity, Suleiman Trabulsi, said that great damage took place in the in the electricity grid network in most Lebanese areas.

He said that tens of operation rooms were set up to withstand the next storm which will last today and Sunday.

In Jordan three persons were killed and another wounded on Thursday in a car accident that resulted from the poor visibility on a highway due to a storm that hit Jordan.

Jordanian police sources said the accident took place between three lorries on the highway linking al-Azraq area to the oil pumping station in Safawi, 100 km east of Amman The three lorries hit each other, and this resulted in a fire that destroyed the lorries and oil leaked on the highway and the traffic was stopped as a result.

Heavy rainfall continued on Thursday evening accompanied by winds of 80-km per hour speed for the second day. The winds resulted in transforming the track of a Jordanian plane coming from London to Cairo airport.

In Iraq, a heavy rain and snowstorm hit northern Iraq this week and resulted in closing several roads.

The Iraqi weekly al-Zouraa said on Friday said that snowfall reached one meter height in several areas in the provinces of Dahouk, Arbiel, and al-Suleimaneyeh in northern Iraq.

A storm has hit the Middle East since Tuesday evening and caused damage and stopped the traffic in several countries of the region.

Previous Stories:
  Sandstorm sweeps away Bedouins' tents in Neguev, water submerges Java houses   (1/19/2000)
  Morocco sends technicians to help restore electricity to storm-struck French regions   (1/15/2000)
  Snowstorm in Algeria   (12/28/1999)

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