Snow storm causes chaos across Middle East
A winter storm has closed roads, schools and businesses in parts of the Middle East, dumping around a foot of snow on Amman, where snowmen sprouted along streets in the desert kingdom.
Ploughs had to be employed to clear Amman’s hilly streets, which were also used by excited children who had turned plastic tubs and bowls into sleds.
The storm, which also swept across Syria, Lebanon and Israel with winds of up to 50 mph was not expected to ease until Monday.
By this morning, parts of northern Jordan had received as much as 80 centimetres of snow, and drifts of up to 5ft were reported in some outlying Lebanese and Syrian villages.
Lebanese media reported one storm-related death when a man was electrocuted yesterday after strong winds snapped a power line in the Bekaa Valley.
Jordanians were treated to a rare sight as weather led the television news instead of reports of violence in neighbouring Israel, the Palestinian territories and Iraq.
“It’s weather reports on the news for a change,” said Samiha Baz, who helped her two children build a snowman in an Amman residential neighbourhood where pine and palm branches had crashed down under the weight of snow.
Police major Bashir Daaja said several main highways across the kingdom were blocked by snow. He said numerous motorists were trapped on the highway to the airport, which announced that air traffic had not been affected. There were no immediate reports of accidents or deaths, Daaja said.
Workers were also trying to clear snow-clogged roads in Syria and in Lebanese highlands outside the capital, Beirut. About 10,000 internal security, army and civil defence personnel were deployed and they had to rescue more than 400 stranded motorists.
The Beirut-Damascus highway was open only to cars with snow chains on their tyres, and Lebanese motorists were advised to avoid mountain roads.
No damage or casualties were reported in Syria, but an official from Syria’s meteorology department said contact with several villages had been lost. Most Syrians were unable to get to work or school today.
In Jordan, schools, offices and most businesses were closed, according to state-run Jordan Television, which showed clips of children throwing snowballs in Amman.
Parliament announced the postponement of a session that had been scheduled to debate Jordan’s budget for the fiscal year 2004, while public transport came to a complete halt in the capital and most cities in northern and central Jordan.
In Jerusalem, the gold and silver domes of the Old City’s Al Aqsa mosque complex and the spire of the Holy Sepulchre church were robed in white, while in the hilly West Bank city of Nablus yesterday, three school buses skidded off roadsand 45 pupils had to be rescued by fire trucks.
Icy roads also prompted Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to put off a round of talks scheduled for today, aimed at preparing a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Queria. No new date has been set.
