BEIRUT / TRIPOLI/SIDON: Storm Yohan wreaked havoc across Lebanon Wednesday, inflicting massive damage to the coast and forcing road closures across the country.
But the storm’s violent winds are expected to wane over the next few days, according to the Meteorological Department at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, even as inclement weather continues.
“The wind will remain strong Thursday, but it will be lighter than Wednesday,” a source at the department told The Daily Star. “There’s a possibility for the storm to last until Saturday, as the intensity of the rain will subside starting Friday night.”
A source at the Meteorological Department said a low-pressure system was turning counterclockwise over Lebanon, bringing with it dust and sand from North Africa, leading to muddy rain and poor visibility. The state-run National News Agency reported that snow in some areas was colored red due to the sediment carried by the heavy winds.
Thursday is expected to be cloudy with heavy rains, accompanied by thunderstorms and winds up to 70 kilometers per hour, according to the department’s night weather forecast.
Snow is expected to fall at altitudes of 800 meters as wind speeds decrease gradually during the night.
Temperatures will range between 5 and 15 degrees Celsius along the coast, 0 and 5 in the mountains, minus 6 and 1 in the Cedars, and 1 and 11 degrees in the Bekaa Valley.
These temperatures are expected to hold Friday, as winds remain active with heavy rains at times, especially during the morning. Showers will decrease gradually beginning Friday night.
Blowing over from Europe, Yohan intensified Tuesday night and into Wednesday. Wind speeds reached 100 kilometers per hour, forming 8-meter-high waves that battered corniches in coastal cities. Accompanied by heavy rain and hail, the storm destroyed restaurants, damaged crops, brought down trees and caused widespread blackouts.
Coastal areas suffered catastrophic damage from the huge waves whipped up by the high winds. Beirut’s Ain al-Mreisseh Corniche was severely damaged, its metal barriers ripped out of the pavement by the ferocity of the storm. The Beirut Fire Department cautioned citizens to stay away from the coast due to the dangerous waves.
Restaurant Chez Zakhia, in the northern coastal town of Amchit, was completely devastated, according to the National News Agency, as powerful waves damaged the venue’s external foundations and flooded it with water.
A Civil Defense rescue center stationed in Jounieh’s port was also heavily damaged, and four boats sank in the city’s port as a result of the crashing waves.
To the south, strong winds uprooted trees, tore down advertisements, and caused power outages in Tyre and across the region. With waves reaching 3 meters, fishermen tied up their boats out of fear they would swallowed by the sea.
Sidon’s port was forced to close, as its facilities were ravaged by strong winds and 7-meter waves. Huge breakers swamped bulldozers at the city’s commercial seaport, dragging one into the sea.
In the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, the minaret of the camp’s Rabah Mosque was toppled by high winds, according to a report by the NNA.
Yohan also forced road closures across the country, and difficult driving conditions led to a number of accidents, exacerbating the country’s notorious traffic jams.
The Internal Security Force’s Traffic Management Center reported bumper-to-bumper traffic stemming from the storm.
The ISF announced Wednesday night on its Twitter feed that the Dahr al-Baidar road and the Kefraya-Barouk road were both blocked.Yohan brought heavy snow to the country’s mountains, covering villages in the southern towns of Kfar Shouba, Kfar Hammam, and Shebaa, where a Red Cross team reportedly had to evacuate a school bus that had become stuck in the snow.
Mona Chahine, director of the Nicolas Chahine Observatory, told The Daily Star that their instruments in Ras Beirut had recorded 526 milliliters of rain since September. Some “147 milliliters was the total level [of precipitation] recorded for the same period last year.”
Education Minister Elias Bou Saab announced Wednesday night that schools and institutes will be open Thursday. “Head of schools in areas covered by snow can decide whether to open their schools or not, depending on whether [students] can make it safely to school,” he said in a statement. – Additional reporting by Mohammed Zaatari and Antoine Amrieh
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