Lebanonwire, February 28, 2003

The Daily Star

Mohammed Zaatari and Samer Wehbe
Daily Star correspondents

Recent storms that have pounded the country eased Thursday but claimed the life of three people, who were unable to reach hospitals for medical treatment.
The National News Agency said that in Dinnieh, an 11-year-old boy, Walid Qaddour, was hit by a bulldozer and sustained severe injuries that led to his death, as he could not be transported to a hospital.
In the Akkar village of Qarsita, an unidentified man of unknown age died of a heart attack, also due to the impossibility of reaching a hospital, the NNA said.
In the Western Bekaa village of Qilya, a heart attack claimed the life of Mohammed Abdullah. He too could not be taken to hospital for treatment.
In addition, hundreds of heads of livestock have died in the North due to the inclement weather.
The Bekaa, the worst-hit area in the country, came to life once again as people ventured out to buy fuel and sweep away the snow that covered their homes.
The Public Works Ministry’s bulldozers were again at work re-opening mountain roads, especially the Ainata, Yammouneh and Beit Mshik roads.
Food aid has been transported to some of the villages that were isolated by the snow in the past few days.
The Hermel-Qobeiyat road was re-opened through Akroum, as the usual road was inaccessible due to landslides in the area of Ain Burghul, located near the Karm Shbat forest.
However, schools have remained closed as people came out of their homes only to buy food and heating fuel.
The cost of the storm in destroyed infrastructure, dead livestock and destroyed houses is “very high,” but an accurate assessment of the total damage cannot be determined before the weather clears, officials in Baalbek said Thursday.
Residents of the northern Bekaa village of Deir al-Ahmar, whose contact with the rest of the country has depended on wireless telephones, complained that the equipment has become inoperable due to lack of power to recharge the batteries.
The thickness of the snow in some areas of the Northern Bekaa has reached as high as four meters.
Civil Defense workers were still working hard on the blocked roads in the Bekaa as every night fresh snow and ice caused more blockage and endangered the lives of residents.
In Jezzine, bulldozers were still working to re-open mountain roads. The technical teams from the Jezzine Electricity Authority were unable to reach the severed 66 Kilovolt power cable on the Toumat Niha mountain, due to snow thickness of 1.5 meters and the fog at high altitude.
On Thursday morning, the roads to Rihan, Mlikh and Aramta, which were closed by snow, were re-opened along with the Shebaa-Hasbaya road.
The torrential rains in the area of the Wazzani River caused a landslide in a nearby mountain, as rocks had rolled down onto the main road leading to the spring, and closed it.
As for the Wazzani River operators, they were unable to reach the pumps to obtain water in the morning.
Public Works bulldozers were later seen working on the road to remove the debris. This has led to a state of alert on the Israeli side and they were on military patrol inside the Syrian village of Ghajar.
Personnel from the Islamic Scout Movement have been answering rescue calls throughout the country.
In the Western Baalbek area, the scout movement has helped re-open several roads, including those of Shmustar, Boudai, Flaway, Umm Ali, al-Hassira al-Fawqa, al-Hassira al-Tahta and other towns.
The scout movement has set up a mobile hospital to treat patients and provide them with heating fuel and medicines, especially chronically ill patients.
The movement’s civil defense teams have also succeeded in re-opening the following roads: Beit Mshik and Beit Slaibi to treat some patients who were chronically ill.
The scout movement continued to work until Wednesday night and is to resume Thursday.
The Beirut International Airport’s Weather Bureau on Thursday predicted clouds and rain until Friday, expected to be followed by an improvement until Sunday.
In Bqarsouna in the North, more than 87 homes have sustained cracks as a result of the storm. It is feared that the number of such homes would double in the expected storms.
Parliament’s Public Works Committee is scheduled to visit the North on Friday for a first hand report on the storm damages. The committee members are expected to be accompanied on their tour of the stricken areas by Public Works Minister Najib Mikati, Energy and Water Minister Mohammed Abdel-Hamid Beydoun and Agriculture Minister Ali Abdullah.
The head of Hizbullah’s politburo, Ibrahim Amin Sayyed, headed a Hizbullah delegation to the Bekaa village of Yammouneh on Thursday.
The delegation toured some flood-stricken areas of the town as well surrounding villages.
The town’s roads were re-opened after Hizbullah earth-moving machinery was used to remove the snow that was blocking them.
Hizbullah also provided heating fuel to town residents and brought in a mobile hospital along with a team of doctors to check local residents’ health and respond to any emergency medical situations. ­ Additional reporting by Morshed al-Ali

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