The stormy weather is expected to continue on Tuesday with
snowfall over 900m during day-time, and a drop in temperatures where snow is
expected to fall over 700m at night and gradually continues to fall on lower
heights to reach lower than 300m, as forecasted by Beirut Airport -based
Meteorology Department.
Currently, mountainous roads are witnessing a slow movement especially the
Achkout-Mzaar road were snow has already reached a height of 1.5 meters and the
temperature dropped to -3 degrees.
The Ouyoun el Siman road toward Baalbeck is blocked, and only equipped cars are
allowed to cross the Achkout road toward Ouyoun el Siman.
In the Chouf area, snow blocked the roads of Ma’aser al-Chouf-Kefraya
and Ma’aser al-Barouk after 20 cm of thick snow had accumulated.
The
storm was accompanied by strong winds led to power outages in most
Lebanese towns at a time when floods in the village of Baba led to the
collapse of a support wall, leaving several cars damaged.
Snow trapped citizens evacuation:
The Army Command - Orientation
Directorate said that LAF units are continuing operations to evacuate
citizens trapped in the snow and mentioned that these units rescued
various citizens who were stranded in their cars especially in the
mountainous regions of Baalbeck, Akkar, Jbeil, and Keserwan.
It
is worth noting that LAF units worked on opening various roads that were
blocked due to the accumulation of snow and kept the Air Force
Helicopters in the areas of Beirut, Bekaa, and the North in a state of
readiness to intervene if any emergent issue erupted.
Storm Damage:
Farmers in Akkar expressed their concern that the flood of the Al-Kabir River
might damage the potato season.
Citrus fruits farmers said that the storm broke the lemon trees and damaged a
large quantity of lemon season crops.
As for green house farmers, the storm tore the nylon covers wasting their
protected plantations.
Poultry farmers said that a number of chicken died due to the extreme cold in
farms that are not equipped with heating systems.
Blocked Roads:
Blocked roads in Akkar are the following: Hrar-Kbayyat-Danniyeh, Kbayyat-Beit
Jaafar-Hermel, Fnaydek, Marjahin-Hermel, and Meshmesh-Wata Meshmesh-Hermel.
Regions affected by heavy rain
Among
the regions affected by heavy rains, the Marjayoun Valley over flooded
leaving crops, mainly wheat in Kfarkila, over-drenched.
Consequently,
town residents attempted to open a drain at the border barbed wire to
facilitate water drainage but were prevented by UNIFIL troops for fears
of instigating tensions on the already tumultuous borders.
Members
of the Spanish contingent and the LAF were deployed in the region
whereby a series of contacts were launched in hopes of persuading the
Israeli's to open the drain.On the coastline, roads are witnessing normal traffic after heavy rains led to
various floods on Monday especially that of Beirut River which caused
significant damage in the Karantina fish market.
On the other hand, Hay
al-Sollom drowned again after Ghadir River flooded, while the residents
expressed their anger towards the situation and the damages caused by the
current storm.
For his part, Public Works Minister
Ghazy Aridi expressed his solidarity with the residents of Hay
al-Sollom, noting that they must first address the root cause of the
problem, while stressing that the Ghadir River is a wide historical
river which narrowed down due to misguided construction.
Commenting
on the catastrophe which had befallen the stricken Beirut neighborhood
with water now entering homes and properties, Aridi said through LBCI
that he cannot separate the results from the causes, noting that the
public works ministry perfectly assumed all of its responsibilities.
"We
should mobilize the capacities of all the ministries, but this requires
a unanimous decision issued by involved parties and administrations,"
Aridi said.
He added that the current storm is exceptional,
pointing that there are states with capabilities larger than that of
Lebanon that have faced troubles in addressing damages resulting from
exceptional storms, such as the USA and Europe.
"It is true that
we are facing a disaster in Lebanon, but we should have deployed more
efforts, and I say this openly," Aridi stated.