The price of snow: over 300 million shekels

When snow still covers the roads and thousands are trapped in their homes without electricity, local government center is already thinking about the day after. According to preliminary estimates, the damage from the storm and the expenses that local authorities already amount to are more than 300 million.

Chairman of the Local Government Finance Minister Shlomo Bohbot and Yair Lapid discussed today and agreed to finance a special edition which will cover all the authorities in respect of the storm, comes to saving lives and helping those in need.
Meanwhile, local authorities are trying to continue to reduce damage. Dozens of teams and tools for snow removal were transferred to Jerusalem as well as preparing the center of local government to assist in opening the roads in besieged Safed.

"Default preparedness of the country"

"Those days are revealing the default deployment of the State of Israel," Raged local government chairman Bohbot. "It is inconceivable that the entire state resident without a solution and that the local authorities will not find the necessary means to help citizens at this time."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier to assess the situation and instructed various ministries, defense and Power Company to operate such compliance of the three key tasks - in front of the storm damage. "The first task is to save lives, while proactively detecting priority seniors who need treatment," Netanyahu instructed.

Additionally Prime Minister called to see to the delegates, all the places that have not yet connected to electricity. Another task was placed on the agenda - is staging floods which are expected to begin soon, following heavy precipitation.

Meanwhile thousands of civilians in Jerusalem and the north are still trapped in their homes without electricity and blocked highways. "My wife is a nurse who handles the elderly and should give them drugs and had no way to reach them," Yehuda Chemo News 2 in Safed who is disconnected from power. "It's a matter of life and death."

Also in the disconnected is a young couple with a baby without electricity: "We have been almost 30 hours without electricity. We cannot move on the roads and there are over a meter of snow - the mayor cannot handle problems alone."

He said that the defense minister did not address enough words in assessing the situation in the Jerusalem municipality as well as in the northern part of the state – he called to also worry about the periphery, not just the capital.

Birnbaum family from Ariel also suffers from electrical faults - and for 20 hours or so they are cut off: "What are we? Second-class citizens?" They wondered. "We are three people in the apartment and just freezing, it is not possible," said Varda Birnbaum – who called upon the electric company to handle the malfunction as soon as possible.

Stranded vehicles abandoned by owners

Electric company said that roads and access routes are blocked due to the great amount of snow, and there are stranded cars abandoned by their owners on the highways. Another problem is reported this morning by travelers who came to the north into the blocked highways - blocking the rescue forces who are trying to reach various locations.

Assessing the status at a conference today Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon along with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, the minister received an overview of the relevant factors for extreme weather damage. According to them, despite the difficulties - there are no signs of omission in the conduct of authorities and rescue officials.

"There is no doubt that we are in an unusual event that Jerusalem has not known before," said Yaalon. "First of all, the important thing of course is human life and saving lives. Currently at least we state that we have no casualties as a result of the storm, but the event is underway. Even if according to the forecasters weather is going to get better - we have many challenges. Tonight is going to be difficult in terms of cold and ice axes"

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!