Israel braces for new bout of stormy weather

Emergency services put on alert with rain, thunderstorms, flooding expected; conditions won’t be as bad as this month’s storm

Israel Police forces, paramedic services and the Israel Electric Corporation went on high alert ahead of stormy weather expected to spread from the south of the country to the north from Saturday night.

The winter weather will include rain, thunderstorms and a significant drop in temperature in most of the country with some flooding expected in the Negev, Israel Radio reported

The scale of the storm is not expected to reach the levels seen earlier this month when the region coped with what was termed the “storm of the century.”

In Israel, the extreme weather claimed the lives of four people, left tens of thousands without power, and cut off Jerusalem from the rest of the country for days as the main roads to and from the capital were closed off to traffic due to road conditions. The storm also covered Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Galilee and the Golan Heights in centimeters of snow, and caused damage to infrastructure estimated at NIS 1 billion.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel weathered the brutal winter storm “better than developed countries” that were accustomed to more frequent blizzards, and dismissed criticism that the country was ill-prepared for the storm.