‘We called out their names, nobody answered’ — teen recalls deadly flood
Member of group hit by torrent that killed 10 in desert ravine describes moment friends were swept away. ‘It was a powerful wave, I’d never seen anything like it’
In new testimony Friday, a survivor of the desert flash flood that claimed the lives of 10 teenagers recounted the horrific moments in which the group realized they were in grave danger, and the instant when his female friends were dragged away by a powerful wave of water.
The 18-year-old teen, who spoke anonymously, told the Ynet news site that on Thursday morning he and his friends, who were slated to begin studies at the Bnei Zion pre-military academy later this year, had no inkling of possible jeopardy when they began their pre-program bonding hike into the ravine at Tzafit River.
“The weather on the path was clear and there had been no rain during the night. It was pretty pleasant and even warm like on any normal hike,” he said.
“We went into the riverbed. It began to drizzle and some people put on raincoats, some put coverings over their bags. Some of the girls were having trouble so I stayed behind with them to help them take care of their bags.”
The rain then began to intensify. “One of the girls said her bag was getting wet and she wouldn’t have anything to sleep with, so I helped her cover her bag with plastic bags. It took time and me and her got delayed behind. Behind us were four other people, including the guide and the medic… When they approached us I went over to ask the guide a question, a stone’s throw away from the girls.”
The teen said he believed the decision to stay behind and then to walk up to the guide may well have saved his life.
“We started hearing this noise of [crashing] rocks and something like irrigation sprinklers [but] maybe eight times stronger,” he recalled.
The group’s medic then shouted that a flood was coming, and told everyone to climb up to a higher slope.
“Rocks half the size of a man flew into the wall and exploded, and it made a huge boom,” the teen went on. “Everyone heard it. The wall started to collapse, pieces fell off it and everyone [jumped aside]. That lasted for a few seconds and I jumped onto a ledge, and when I turned back to see what was happening with the girls the water was already at my knees.
“A wave a meter-and-a-half (5 feet) high simply hit the girls and carried them away. It was a powerful wave, I’d never seen anything like it. They had no chance of surviving that. The water came up to my feet even though I was on a ledge. The guide and the medic shouted to me to climb up immediately and to those below to run.”
He said it was “impossible” to catch those who had been swept away by the current. “If I had stayed below for a moment longer I would have been swept away too.”
Those who had not been hit by the floodwaters then climbed up. Some tried to call for help on their phones while others began looking for those who had been carried off. “Maybe they’d caught onto something on the way,” he said, describing his thinking at the time.
“We called out their names because we thought maybe someone was still there, but nobody answered. There was only a crazy huge current of water with rocks, waves and whirlpools.”
A large number of rescue forces rushed to the scene to aid the group, but for those who had been dragged away by the currents, it was too late.
Paramedic Orgad Cohen told Hadashot TV news Friday night the experience of treating the flood victims was one of the toughest of his life.
“Another helicopter comes down, and another helicopter comes down, and we start receiving these 18-year-old girls, with no signs of life. It was a very, very difficult sight,” he said.
“As a professional you’re well versed in these things, but this time it was really hard. As a… family man, to see kids in such a state. I don’t wish it upon anyone.”
Despite the consequences of the hike, which academy staff had decided to undertake despite days of warnings of possible flash floods in the area, the teen survivor warned against rushing to appoint blame.
He explained that academy staff said they had checked with the relevant authorities. “There was an expectation of rain only at 3 p.m. and were hiking at 1 p.m. The academy people said that if there was rain we’d go somewhere else and definitely not to a flood.” There had been no plan to see floods, he noted.
“We can’t jump to conclusions. They’re already blaming the academy, but that’s not right and they should let police do its job and investigate. I don’t know who’s to blame and nobody knows who’s to blame.”
Police on Friday arrested the head of the academy and the group’s tour guide on suspicion of negligent homicide.
According to a Hadashot news report Friday night, the two told police that they had consulted with a weather forecasting company before setting out on the trip, as well as — unoffically — with an alumnus of the academy who now serves as a weather forecaster in the Israeli Air Force.
The two were apparently well aware of the problematic weather in the days leading up to the trip, and the location of the planned hike had been changed twice due to the forecasts of rain and flooding. They were under the assumption that the hiking trail they had chosen would be safe until 3 p.m. on Thursday, the TV report said.
The two were questioned overnight Thursday-Friday over their failure to heed flooding warnings south of the Dead Sea and call off the hike, police said. A third suspect was also questioned and later released to house arrest.
Extending the remand of Bnei Zion academy principal Yuval Kahan and tour guide Aviv Bardichev by five days Friday afternoon, Justice Eitan Gonen of the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court hinted at attempts to cover up information about the planning of the trip, saying there were “contradictions in the versions of events” that the two had given.
The 10 killed in the floods were in a group of 25 students on a hike organized by the academy. They were due to start the program in the coming year, and the hike was intended as a pre-program bonding excursion. Nine of the teenagers’ bodies were found in the course of the afternoon and evening on Thursday, and the tenth was discovered early on Friday morning.
The hike in the Tzafit River, a riverbed in the southern Dead Sea area, went ahead despite warnings of life-threatening weather conditions.
But in a WhatsApp message sent to participants on Wednesday ahead of the trip, organizers assured participants that there was nothing to worry about.
They insisted that the hike would be “fun and wet and an experience.” The students were urged to bring “a rain coat,” “a rain cover for your bags,” and “a change of dry clothes in case you need it.”
“Don’t worry,” the message read. “We are well-prepared for the hike and the academy has checked with the relevant authorities.”
On Thursday another teen who survived the incident recalled seeing “bodies in the water” as 3-meter-high (10 feet) waves killed 10 of his friends.
“I saw bodies floating in the water. I didn’t know if they were alive, or if what I saw was dead bodies,” the young man told Hadashot news through his father, identified only as Nissim. “At one point there was a wave that was three or four meters high,” the teen recounted. “I was holding onto one of my friends really tight… but we couldn’t stand against the massive water current.”
“She slipped away from me in front of my eyes,” he told his father.
Another teenager who survived told Channel 10 from his hospital bed at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba that he clutched a tree branch and narrowly managed to avoid being swept away.
Hospital officials told the TV channel that 13 of the 25 teens on the hike were receiving treatment for light to moderate injuries, including hypothermia.
Deputy director of Soroka, Professor Yochanan Pfizer, said the hospital would provide psychological support for the teenagers who survived the flash floods.
“The psychological side of this is significant. We have a team of social workers and psychologists that will accompany those who were injured,” he said.
Nine teenage young women and one young man were killed by the flood at Tzafit River, a popular hiking trail along a riverbed in the southern Dead Sea area.
The 10 fatalities were Shani Shamir from the central city of Shoham; Ella Or from Ma’ale Adumim; Maayan Barhum and Yael Sadan from Jerusalem; Tzur Alfi, the only boy who was killed, from the central town of Mazkeret Batya; Agam Levy from the central Israeli town of Herut; Romi Cohen of Maor, near Hadera; Gali Balali from the Tel Aviv suburb of Givatayim; Adi Raanan of the northern Israel moshav of Mikhmoret; and Ilan Bar Shalom of Rishon Lezion.
Seven of the victims were laid to rest Friday, with the other three to be buried Sunday.
