Israel sees stormy weather

Winter makes grand entrance as first rain storm of season leaves greater Tel Aviv area's streets flooded; snow storm forces Mt. Hermon ski resort to close
Ynet

Wet winter wonderland: The season's first storm wreaked havoc on the Tel Aviv metropolitan area Wednesday, as many streets and highways were completely flooded.

A tree collapsed overnight at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, crashing into the doctors' dormitory and causing substantial damage.

Streets in the cities of Bnei Brak, Or Yehuda and Kiryat Ono were also flooded, as local firefighters were called in to rescue people trapped in their homes.

Over at Kfar Kassem, located in the Sharon region, firefighters were called in to rescue drivers who trapped in the cars, stuck in a large pool of water.

Flooding in Tel Aviv area (Photo: Rachel Kadaras)

Tel Aviv's streets were soggy as well, as Ibn Gvirol Street – one of the city's major routes – was both flooded and adorned with a gaping new hole in the road.

Ramat Gan's Aluf Sadeh junction was flooded as well, causing gridlocks.

In northern Israel, the Mount Hermon ski resort was closed to visitors due to a nightly snow storm which covered the area with some 20 centimeters (8 inches) of snow.

The resort's manager, Menachem Baruch, told Ynet that the resort will remain closed all through Wednesday.

The Meteo-Tech weather service said that the rain was expected to continue throughout the day, temperatures will drop and the winds will range from 24 to 45 miles an hour.

The service also issued a flooding warning in the law plains and said Mount Hermon is likely to see another snow storm.

Avi Cohen, Hagai Einav and Raanan Ben-Zur contributed to this report