Storm leaves 15,000 households without power, again

New outages come hours after power company fixes electrical grids damaged in previous storm

Severe traffic on the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv on October 28, 2015. (Simcha Simon, courtesy)
Severe traffic on the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv on October 28, 2015. (Simcha Simon, courtesy)

Three days after a heavy storm knocked out power for tens of thousands of Israeli homes, a fresh bout of strong rain on Wednesday downed power lines, leaving some 15,000 households in central Israel in the dark for the second time in less than a week.

The renewed power outages in the Sharon region north of Tel Aviv came hours after the Israel Electric Cooperation announced that almost all of the 200,000 homes that had lost power during the height of Sunday’s storm had been reconnected to the power grid.

The IEC said in a statement on Wednesday that its crews were working to repair the damaged high voltage power lines in the area, but did not give an estimate as to how long the repairs would take.

Residents of Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Kfar Saba and Ra’anana reported heavy rainfall, severe flash flooding and gridlocked roads as a result of the inclement weather.

Israel Radio reported that police evacuated dozens of people stranded in their homes and cars in Kfar Saba and Ra’anana.

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On Sunday, one person was killed and 20 more injured as high winds and heavy rain battered the country, knocking down trees and a crane in central Israel, and flooding roads in the south.

While the IEC said its crews were working in full emergency capacity to restore electricity to the 200,000 homes without power, a number of reports indicated that disgruntled employees were taking their time repairing broken power lines to signal their discontent with the management’s moves to streamline the state-owned corporation.

The slow pace of repairs brought a torrent of criticism from politicians and others, who accused the union of instructing workers to drag their feet, and the company of failing to have proper infrastructure in place.

Yesh Atid MK and chairwoman of the Knesset’s State Comptroller Committee Karin Elharar called the delay in repairs “disrespectful to the public, the Knesset and Israel.”

In a statement released Wednesday, Elharar leveled harsh criticism at the electric company, and said the renewed outages were an indication of the “wasteful and cavalier behavior of the IEC.”

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz faulted the IEC for failing to promptly fix the downed power lines, and called the situation “a very grave incident that must not be repeated” in an interview with Channel 2 Monday evening.

“This saddens me greatly, and I think the union made a huge mistake,” he said. “This is a grave mistake, from an ethical standpoint as well.”

Steinitz added that once the power grids were repaired, an investigation should be opened into the IEC’s handling of the situation.

On Sunday evening, the electric company’s management petitioned the National Labor Court to order its employees to work in emergency mode, hours after it discovered that some employees were purposely keeping to their usual shift hours despite the storm, apparently at the instruction of the union.

Findings published Tuesday painted a picture of workers content to let Israelis remain without power to resolve the labor dispute, and a bungled response from the IEC’s management.

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