Rain-logged capital lashed by winter storm
Sea of Galilee rises by nearly an inch and a half since Tuesday, but Water Authority says northern rivers not flowing at max
The greater Jerusalem area bore the brunt of a tempestuous rainstorm on Wednesday, with the capital getting nearly five inches of rain in an early burst of wintry weather.
Rains were expected to taper off Thursday after two days of unremitting precipitation that saw a staggering 149 millimeters (5.8 inches) of water fall on Kibbutz Tzuba, just west of Jerusalem. The Sea of Galilee rose by nearly a centimeter and a half, or half an inch, on Wednesday, and a total of 1.7 inches since the storm began.
The Water Authority said, however, that the rise in the lake’s level was minor relative to the power of the storms that raked the country this week, Ynet reported. The agency added that the creeks in northern Israel aren’t flowing in force into the Kinneret, and the rise in water level is largely due to rain falling over the lake.
The storm, which began Tuesday night, has caused injuries, flooding, power outages and property damage nationwide. While the rain was expected to subside on Thursday, the chilly weather is predicted to persist through Friday.
In Bat Yam, a 60-year-old man was killed Wednesday after he slipped into the street and was hit by a bus.
In the central Israeli city of Hod Hasharon, three young brothers were rescued by a police officer after they were stranded in a massive mud pool. The three were treated by MDA paramedics, Channel 10 reported.
On Wednesday evening, IDF and police search and rescue teams scrambled to a remote Judean Desert riverbed to extract two hikers who were trapped because of flash floods in the area. That storms that have wracked Israel for the past two days sent cascades of water down the wadis from the Jerusalem hills toward the Dead Sea.
A helicopter from the IDF’s 669 search and rescue unit managed to reach the two despite the inclement weather. At least 23 emergency rescue workers were deployed to Nahal Og, roughly 15 miles east of Jerusalem, to rescue the two backpackers, Ynet reported. The complex operation took several hours due to storms in the area. The two were airlifted to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem in good condition.