Devastation in Akkar following torrential rains, Feb 10. (Credit: Michel Hallak)
BEIRUT — Torrential rains have caused major damage to homes, tents for Syrian migrants, roads and fields in the region of Wadi Khaled (Akkar district) and surrounding regions on Friday.
Floodwater in Wadi Khaled, Akroum and northern regions in Akkar, entered hundreds of Syrian migrants' tents and dozens of houses. The torrential rains happened mainly between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Friday and by 8:30 p.m., the situation was almost back to normal. Three children were missing following the floods but later found on Friday night. The floods spilled into the valleys and canals to an unprecedented extent and led to a rapid and significant rise in the level of the Nahr al-Kabir river.
The Lebanese Army, the Lebanese Red Cross, the civil defense and volunteers have been evacuating affected people since last night.
The head of the municipality of Amayer and Rajm Issa, which are villages in Akkar, said that these regions were previously "subjected to natural disasters" but that this disaster was "the harshest and most painful."
On Jan 13., Akkar had also been severely hit by floods. The bad weather that has set in over the last few weeks, with its share of rain and snow on the country's highest peaks, continues to cause incidents affecting residents and infrastructure.
In this context, the civil defense announced on Friday that it carried out two weather-related rescue operations. Its volunteers came to the aid of car passengers blocked by snow in Sannine, Metn, at around 2:30 p.m., after having carried out a similar operation in Tarshish, in the same region, at around 8 a.m.
However, on a positive note, the mohafez of the Bekaa, Kamal Abou-Jaoudeh, authorized on Friday the partial reopening of the Dahr al-Baidar crossing point, which links Beirut to the Bekaa plain, to trucks after it was closed due to the recent collapse of a retaining wall in the region.