Lebanon | 4 children died after a house collapsed due to heavy rains in the north of the country

Weather of Arabia - Heavy and unusual torrential rain, on Friday night, led to streets in Lebanon being flooded with water and collapses in cracked houses, leading to casualties in the north of the country.

Four children died at dawn today, Saturday, as a result of the collapse of the ceiling of the room they were in in the Miziara area, Zgharta district in northern Lebanon, while the parents and the eldest son escaped death.

A civil defense source told Sky News Arabia that the last body of the four Syrian children who died before noon on Saturday was recovered.

The heavy rain also led to the flooding of streets and citizens' cars, and even civil defense mechanisms that moved to assist citizens were not spared.

Rain accumulated at the northern entrance to the capital, Beirut, and traffic stopped, leaving citizens stuck in their cars under the torrential rain until midnight.

An eyewitness said, this Saturday morning, in Beirut to the Sky News Arabia website, “Some citizens’ cars are still stuck in the Karantina area (the northern entrance to the capital), which leads to the port of Beirut, and the Lebanese Civil Defense vehicle that tried to rescue the citizens is still surrounded by water.” "Rain."

Civil defense personnel carried out a number of tasks that varied from rescuing citizens who were trapped by the floods inside their cars, homes, and in nightlife venues, pulling cars, sweeping dirt and rocks off the roads, and withdrawing water from inside homes and warehouses, as a result of the heavy precipitation that fell since Friday afternoon in a large number of areas. , and caused floods.

Civil Defense members used a bulldozer to open the road and rescue citizens trapped inside their cars after the water level of the Beirut River, which flows near the port, rose.

On the sea road extending from Nahr al-Kalb to the city of Jounieh, north of Beirut, a large number of families were trapped inside their cars. Rescue teams were able to save school students who were trapped by floods inside two buses near Nahr al-Kalb. One of the students was taken to the hospital and first aid was provided to her.

Water was also drawn from inside a house in the town of Broummana, according to eyewitnesses.

Director of the Environmental and Water Sciences Laboratory at the Lebanese University, Dr. Jalal Halawani, told Sky News Arabia, “Lebanon is greatly affected by climate change, and rainfall is normal at this time, and it contributes to charging the underground reservoirs with water, but we must know how to manage this rain and manage natural disasters as well.”

He added, "We can benefit from managing rain in a scientific, sustainable way to use it for irrigation and energy generation. In terms of disaster management, we have advanced a lot and prepared studies on how to mitigate the impact of floods."

He continued, "There are sensitive areas in Lebanon that are exposed to floods, especially near riverbeds."

Halawani held the municipalities and the Ministry of Public Works responsible, saying, "We mourn the scarcity of water in the summer, and during the winter we do not know how to manage this blessing, which turns into a curse, disasters, and loss of life. A year ago, the same thing happened in the same areas."

Deputy Director General of Civil Defense, Mirna Al-Murr, told Sky News Arabia, “This problem is repeated every year because we lack proactive plans and proper preparation, and we cannot determine the percentage of precipitation before it occurs. We are not about to hold anyone responsible, but there must be a proactive and warning plan, as we witnessed floods during the past year.” The Civil Defense was forced to rescue people with rubber boats despite the old machinery and the weakness of the material and financial capabilities, but we are ready for the rescue.”

Weather and climate specialist Father Elie Khneisser told Sky News Arabia, “Heavy and torrential rains fell on Lebanon, and the latter results when we have an air depression with cumulus clouds high up to 8,000 meters and a very humid air current. This makes torrential rains accompanied by hailstones that raise the water level in For a very short period, the water level on the roads rises and causes floods.”

He continued, "This condition results from cumulonimbus clouds supported by the jet stream, which is supported by high humidity from the Atlantic Ocean across Europe to the Middle East. This is helped by the rise in temperature of the Atlantic Ocean and results in strong evaporation and numerous hurricanes reaching more than 50 with high humidity reaching 100." % caused floods, as happened in Greece and Libya.

The founder of the YASA Association, Dr. Ziad Akl, told Sky News Arabia, “Lebanon’s roads appeared in a very bad condition as a result of the absence of the necessary regular maintenance of infrastructure and the interest of successive ministers and the Council of Ministers in new projects in exchange for chronic neglect of traffic safety and maintenance of infrastructure, roads, and rain drainage sewers.”

Source: skynewsarabia