Flash Flood Kills at Least 9 Israeli Teenagers on ‘Bonding’ Hike

0
207


Eran Doron, head of the nearby Ramat Negev Regional Council, described the site as “a canyon where the moment a flash flood comes, there is no way out.”

“There are walls of rock between four to 20 meters high on the sides of the canyon,” Mr. Doron added.

Officials said survivors reported that they heard the sound of rushing water only about a minute before being hit by the flash flood.

A police spokeswoman, Merav Lapidot, suggested that the youth group had disregarded police warnings, telling the Mako news site that, “to our regret, these incidents take place when orders are not followed.” She said the police had posted roadblocks in many areas warning of danger but could not be expected to close off every river in the country.

Mr. Eylon, speaking to the Ynet news site later, described the search and rescue effort. “We began combing the area and slowly found members of the group,” he said. “Some were wounded, some healthy and some in more serious condition. We found them in little groups, pairs and on their own. This is a complicated, grooved riverbed.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement, called the calamity a “grave disaster,” adding, “We all pray for better news.”

The hike was meant to be a bonding experience for the participants, officials said.

An Israeli lawmaker, Yehudah Glick, said he had visited Bnei Zion’s offices and found its staff members, and other teenage participants who had not been on the trip to Wadi Tzafit, in tears and in shock.

“Everybody’s trying to collect crumbs of information that are coming in from all over, and mostly they’re trying to collect themselves and put themselves together, and really try to keep themselves in one piece, because they’re broken — they’re very, very much broken,” Mr. Glick said. “These are students that spent the last eight months together, almost 24 hours a day, and they’re close friends.”

Mr. Glick said the academy existed to let Israeli teenagers postpone their military service by a year and spend that time studying Israeli history, Zionism and other topics to make their army service more meaningful.

“Most are nonreligious, but they’re very much active in social issues, trying to help people who are suffering, and really involved on the most emotional level with Israeli society,” he said.

The police promised a full investigation, but early indications suggested that the academy and its outings fell in regulatory gray area, with neither the Education Ministry nor the Defense Ministry providing oversight.

Flash floods in the Israeli desert can come with staggering force. After a heavy rainstorm in May 2001, flooding in Nahal Arugot, near Ein Gedi on the edge of the Dead Sea, destroyed a modern highway bridge that had been designed to withstand such weather and filled a canyon with stone and alluvium in quantities officials said had not been seen in 40 years.

Thursday was the second day of a storm that, in the usually arid south, flooded riverbeds with sudden, lethal effect. On Wednesday, two people were killed: An 18-year-old Palestinian shepherd was found near Ma’ale Amos, an Israeli settlement on the West Bank, a few miles from where he had disappeared, and a 17-year-old Bedouin was swept away in Wadi Mamshit, near Dimona.

In some places, Kan TV reported, the rainfall on Wednesday and Thursday alone totaled about a third of what is normal in a year.

Across the country, the weather seemed to keep trying to outdo itself, with hail the size of grapes and golf balls falling from Jerusalem to Mitzpe Ramon in the south, streets flooding and dozens of stranded motorists needing rescue. In Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv, an acoustic ceiling collapsed, flooding a shopping mall. And the airport in Israel’s southernmost city, Eilat, had to be closed after torrential rain and hail left the runway covered with erosion.

Continue reading the main story



Source : Nytimes