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Photo: Oren Weiss

Cold spell claims 3rd victim

50-year-old homeless woman found dead in Bat Yam. Wintry weather expected to end Thursday. Electric company warns of possible power outages due to increased power demand for heating

A 50-year-old woman was found unconscious under a bench on Atzmaut Boulevard in Bat Yam Tuesday morning in what appears to be the third death related to the recent cold spell.

 

The woman was apparently homeless and was found with bottles of alcohol by her side.

 

Emergency first-responders called to the scene had no choice but to pronounce her dead.

 

A Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedic that arrived on the scene said that the woman appeared to have been dead for a while before she was found. He added that she was not wearing warm clothing and had only covered herself with one blanket.

 

A man found near the woman was also suffering from the onset of hypothermia and was treated by the MDA paramedics.

 

It seems that the woman is the third victim of the recent cold spell. On Sunday, a 40-year-old man was found dead in Holon and a 78-year-old Bedouin woman passed away due to complications resulting from hypothermia in Beersheba.

 

The Meteo-Tech company reported that the frosty weather is scheduled to continue throughout Tuesday. A slight rise in temperatures is expected in mountainous regions and clear skies are expected across the country. This evening, the weather is expected to be cold in most of the country with winds gusting from the north to the northeast.

 

Why so cold?

What is causing the wintry weather? A mountain range that spans from Siberia down through the Caspian Sea to eastern Turkey and down to the Mediterranean Sea creates a current of cold, dry wind blowing in from the north and northeast.

 

Weather forecaster Nahum Malik said that the cold spell should come to an end in the next few days saying that on Thursday the temperatures should be restored to the their winter average.

 

The national electric company was flooded with system failures on Monday following an increased demand for power caused by the rise in heating needs throughout the country. The company is expecting an estimated demand of 10,200 Megawatts of electricity Tuesday, a total of 400 megawatts above the electric system's capacity, after the record for winter electricity consumption was broken yesterday.

 

The company released a statement saying that it may be forced to cause power outages should the demand for power exceed the system's capacity in order to prevent the system from collapsing.

 

Hagai Einav contributed to this report

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.15.08, 09:34
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