Man dies of hypothermia in Haifa as storm hits Israel

A man died Tuesday morning in Haifa after the car he was driving became stuck in a flooded underpass, trapping him in cold conditions, as rain poured down overnight in many areas of the country.

The driver, 74, was taken in critical condition to Rambam Medical Center, where paramedics and doctors, unable to resuscitate him, declared him dead of hypothermia.

Municipal workers had been called to help police close off Halutzei Hata’asiya Street in the northern port city after an underpass in the road became flooded with rain water. The workers noticed a car caught in a pool in the underpass and after investigating further found the driver lying unconscious on the back seat. The man had apparently moved to the back of the vehicle to escape the rising water after his car became stuck, Channel 2 reported.

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Earlier in the day a woman was seriously injured and another nine lightly injured on Route 90 in a three-car pile-up blamed on fog.

The wet weather came after an unseasonable dry spell during which a series of devastating brush fires destroyed hundreds of homes and thousands of acres of forest last month.

Most of the homes destroyed by fire were in Haifa, where some 44 millimeters of rain fell overnight, along with five in Tel Aviv and one in Jerusalem.

As a result of the downpour two out of three lanes in the southbound coastal Route 2 were closed by police.