BEIRUT, Dec 12, (Agencies): Winds, rain and hail on Sunday battered the eastern Mediterranean for a second day, killing at least four people and wreaking havoc as a months-long drought came to a sudden, drastic end.
Drought-stricken countries across the Middle East had been praying for rain for weeks when the weather turned violent at the weekend, with at least four people killed as gale-force winds and torrential rain pounded the coastline.
Winds topped 100 kilometres (60 miles) per hour and waves reached 10 metres (32.8 feet) in height as cities in Lebanon and Israel suffered power cuts.
At least three people were killed in Egypt when a factory collapsed in heavy rain in the densely populated northern port city of Alexandria.
Five others were also seriously injured in the collapse, a security official said, adding that 30 people could have been working in the six-storey factory.
The storms, which briefly disrupted flight schedules, come after unseasonably high temperatures and a lack of rain ravaged forests across the region and left farmers struggling to survive.
Rain and hail whipped across Lebanon on Sunday as the long-awaited first snowstorm of the year fell on mountains — good news for the country’s famed ski resorts but leaving many commuters stranded in icy conditions.
Seaside roads and ports closed on Sunday morning, hours after a 45-year-old woman was killed when a falling palm tree crashed into her car.
Fishermen ventured out to inspect their destroyed boats as the Beirut government evacuated several homes on the coast in the south and placed emergency rescue teams on alert.
In Israel, a Russian tourist was feared dead after he was blown into the sea in the storm that began on Saturday, one week after a devastating forest fire killed 43 people near the northern port city of Haifa.
A Moldovan freighter also went down in stormy seas some 15 kilometres from Israel’s port of Ashdod on Sunday, but its 11 Ukrainian crew members were all rescued unharmed.
In the Golan Heights, an Israeli-occupied plateau which adjoins Syria, snow and rain were abundant but sandstorms were expected in the south of the country, Israel’s meteorology department said.
Rainfall was still sparse in the populous cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, however.
A snowstorm lashed Damascus, disrupting traffic but also bringing some relief from drought which has gripped Syria for the past four years.
The United Nations estimates that drought has affected around 1.3 million Syrians, 800,000 of them severely.
The desert countries of Jordan and Egypt were hit by sandstorms on Sunday as visibility deteriorated and temperatures plummeted.
Jordan was also bracing for heavy rain and snow later in the day, which officials warned could lead to flooding.
In Egypt, a sandstorm, strong winds and driving rain forced several ports to close and disrupted traffic in the Suez Canal, a major waterway linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.
The waterway was hit by poor visibility and winds of up to 40 knots an hour, said an official at the canal, Egypt’s third-largest source of foreign revenue after tourism and remittances from expatriate workers.
An Italian container ship was meanwhile stranded off the northwestern coast of Marsa Matruh after its engines broke down, with 21 crew on board still waiting to be rescued. Thunderstorms and heavy rain also battered Egypt’s north coast, the Red Sea region and the Sinai peninsula.
The storm, which caused temperatures to plunge to below freezing in some places, ended weeks of unseasonably warm and dry weather across the region that caused dozens of forest fires in Lebanon and helped feed a massive blaze in Israel that destroyed thousands of hectares of forest.
It whipped up sand storms in Egypt and Jordan, while in Syria snow blanketed the streets of Damascus for the first time this winter. Schools sent students home early and children ventured outside to play in the streets.
Syrian authorities closed their main port of Tartous, while 4-meter (12-foot) waves forced Egypt to shut down the port of Alexandria — the country’s largest — as well as another in Nuweiba.
Off the Israeli coast, a Moldovan cargo ship sunk in stormy weather about seven miles (11 kilometers) off the port city of Ashdod, and a Turkish ship was safely towed two miles to shore after sending out distress calls.
An official from Israel’s shipping and ports authority, Yigal Maor, said the Moldovan vessel’s 11-member crew scrambled onto lifeboats and was rescued by a nearby Taiwanese ship. The Israeli military said its sailors arrived safely ashore.
Elsewhere in Israel, rain and hail pounded the country while strong winds toppled trees and traffic lights, flooding streets and knocking out electricity to hundreds of homes. Local media reported that a pier at the ancient port city of Caesarea collapsed, a breakfront at another beach cracked and towering waves washed over the shore of Eilat, a Red Sea port city.