A spate of winter weather caused a series of accidents, some avoidable, as well as widespread flooding on Sunday.
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Sunday morning, two youths were stranded in a car that was swept up in flash flood in Nahal Qana in Samaria and wound up lodged on a boulder. After first responders extracted the two safely, the car was washed away by the force of the current.
Later Sunday, a jeep carrying two adults stalled in a flood in Nahal Arza, near Jerusalem. First responders scrambled to the scene found the two sitting on the roof of the car.
Meanwhile, the rain caused flooding in the Amishav neighborhood of Petah Tikva, prompting one local man who take his kayak out and get in a little paddling practice on his home street.
In response to the flooding, the Petah Tikva Municipality issued a statement that "After years of the Amishav neighborhood being neglected, in the past few years work has been done to upgrade the infrastructure at a cost of tens of millions of shekels, including on the major roads.
"The flood took place on a street close to the open areas of the southern Sharon region. We were prepared ahead of time and set up barriers designed to prevent runoff from flowing into the neighborhood. It's possible that someone opened one of them. We will take action to replace them," the city said.
The nearby town of Kafr Qasem saw similar flooding. In one instance, Fire and Rescue Services personnel extracted an adult man and a girl from a car that stalled on a flooded road.
Lod also saw flooding, and the city decided to evacuate several homes in the Neveh Yerek neighborhood as water levels rose.
Blue and White MK Alon Tal discussed the flooding, saying "Just a week and a half ago we held an urgent meeting … about preparing for flooding and extreme rain events, a phenomenon we can expect to increase in the years to come because of climate change.
"The best minds have warned about it, and the state comptroller wrote a severe report about the lack of implementation of government resolution 4079 to prepare for climate change. The combination of extreme rain and the crowded cities that blocks off the ground in the coastal region will only worsen," Tal warned.
Flooding notwithstanding, the past few days of rain poured some 20 millimeters of water into the Sea of Galilee, (.78 inches), causing the lake to rise five centimeters (1.97) from its level last weekend. As of Sunday, the water level in the Sea of Galilee stood at 1.835 meters (6.02 feet) below the Upper Red Line.
The lower reaches of Mount Hermon saw 10 cm. (3.9 inches) of snowfall, while 25 cm. (9.8 inches) fell on the upper part. The ski site was closed Sunday and slated to open to visitors on Monday.
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