Winter pounds Mideast
With a foot of snow, the storm was called January's worst in the region in 30 years.
AMMAN, Jordan - The fiercest winter storm to hit the Mideast in years brought a rare foot of snow to Jordan on Wednesday, caused fatal accidents in Lebanon and the West Bank, and disrupted traffic on the Suez Canal in Egypt. At least eight people died across the region.
In Lebanon, the Red Cross said storm-related accidents killed six people over the last two days. Several drowned after slipping into rivers from flooded roads, one person froze to death, and another died after his car went off a slippery road, said George Kettaneh, operations director for the Lebanese Red Cross.
In the West Bank town of Ramallah, a Palestinian official said two West Bank women drowned after their car was caught in a flash flood Tuesday.
In the Gaza Strip, civil defense spokesman Mohammed al-Haj Yousef said storms cut electricity to thousands of homes.
Parts of Israel were bracing for snow a day after the military was forced to send helicopters and rubber dinghies to rescue residents stranded by floodwaters.
The unusual weather over the last few days hit vulnerable Syrian refugees living in tent camps very hard, particularly 50,000 sheltering in the Zaatari camp in Jordan's northern desert. Torrential rains over four days have flooded 200 tents and forced women and infants to evacuate.
The storm dumped at least a foot of snow on many parts of Jordan and forced at least 400 families to evacuate their homes.
The snowstorm followed four days of torrential rain, which caused flooding in many areas across Jordan. Jordanian meteorologist Mohammed Samawi called it the worst January storm to hit the Mideast in at least 30 years.
In Egypt, rare downpours and low visibility disrupted Suez Canal operations over the last three days and led to the closure of several ports. The number of ships moving through the Suez Canal had fallen by half because of poor visibility, the official MENA news agency reported.
MENA also reported 10 fishermen went missing after their boat capsized near Marsa Matrouh on the Mediterranean.