BEIRUT/TRIPOLI/SIDON: Flights at Beirut’s airport resumed after being briefly suspended Tuesday night due to a powerful storm sweeping through Lebanon, a source at the airport said.
The source told The Daily Star operations gradually returned to normal at Rafik Hariri International Airport after storm warnings delayed the arrival of five flights between 6-8 p.m.
The violent storm with strong winds and heavy hail and rainfall, which predictions show it could last until Sunday, prompted Education Minister Elias Bou Saab to order the closure of schools across the country Wednesday.
Lebanon Tuesday also halted maritime traffic at the southern ports of Sidon and Tyre.
Trees were uprooted and billboards were toppled in different parts of the country, as storm "Zina" battered coastal towns and buried mountain roads under layers of snow.
High winds, reaching up to 90 km/hour, have toppled billboards and damaged cars. Greenhouses were also torn apart by the storm. They also caused property damage and knocked out power and Internet in parts of the country.
High waves slammed into Jbeil's waterfront, drowning the seaside promenade and forcing the closure of restaurants around midday. Seawater also invaded several homes along the Ouzai coastline, south of Beirut.
The mayor of Jbeil Ziad Hawat warned that the town's historic harbor was at risk.
"We repeatedly appealed to the Directorate General of Antiquities to ask the Ministry of Public Works to kick off renovation works at the old port but to no avail," he wrote on Twitter.
Pictures circulated on social media showed the port completely overrun by high waves.
Fruits that had been blown off their tree branches littered orchards across the north as well as in Sidon and Tyre.
The winds also uprooted a tree in Beirut's neighborhood of Tayyouneh blocking a large chunk of the road. A Palm tree was also uprooted in Sidon.
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