Staggering December Snowstorm Tally: $80 Million Damage in Yerushalayim

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yerushalayim-snow1Talk about expensive snow.

The unusual snowstorm that hit Yerushalayim Ihr Hakodesh last month will cost the city over $80 million in damages, Mayor Nir Barkat said today.

Haaretz reports that appearing before the Knesset Finance Committee, Barkat demanded that the state compensate the municipality for the estimated 290 million shekel cost of repairs. “This was a tsunami that the city has never seen before,” Barkat said. “The state must recognize this storm as a natural disaster. The municipality expects the government to volunteer and provide significant financial assistance to enable the city to return to its pre-storm state and to ensure that the damage does not fall on the residents’ shoulders and double their suffering,” he said.

The storm caused damages to the infrastructure, to schools, playgrounds and public parks, to street and outdoor lighting structures, “wear and tear” on the streets and sidewalks, and general safety hazards. The city also lost some 31 million shekels (nearly $90 million) from declaring a state of emergency during the three-day snow storm, Haaretz reported.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}


8 COMMENTS

  1. Catchy phrase: Talk about expensive snow. The snow was FREE. I live in Yerushalim and this wasn’t a tsunami, nor a natural disaster. The disaster, was the City not doing it’s job. Not denying “damage”, but the cost of damage could have been FAR FAR Less. If the city or the Electric company, would have gone around the city, cutting down or trimming branches of potential troubled trees, there would have been less damage. The weight of the snow brought down an unbelievable amount of large branches and sometimes the tree itself, thus blocking roads etc. But then again, it is easier to let things happen, and throw a few fancy words, and milk the government (the people) for the city’s blunders.

  2. Yesh Lehavin –

    This storm was nothing like Jerusalem has ever seen in many decades. And, the forecasters were not predicting a mammoth blizzard, just a chance of an accumulating snow, no different from what Jerusalem gets every couple of years or so. Would it really have made sense for the city to invest hundreds of thousands of shekels to prepare for a blizzard of historic proportions when nothing of the sort was being predicted?

    Not always is there somebody to blame. The storm caused misery for many thousands, and cost millions, but this is not the municipality or the electric company’s fault.

  3. #4. Everyone can share their thoughts or opinions, but facts are facts. YES, there is ALWAYS someone to blame. Nothing to do with sense. FACT: It is the City’s & Electric Company’s Job and have a Budget for it, to go around the City looking at Potential problems. It costs less for the Electric Company (on sunny days) to cut away branches, before they get a chance to come down on Electric Line etc. Yes, the storm caused misery for many thousands, BUT BUT, I wrote, that it could have costed LESS. There is a concept”PREVENTIVE” maintenance. Man does not control the weather. There is what to blame the Municipality and the Electric Company. BEING PREPARED. PERIOD. Any preparation would have lessened the suffering, misery and cost. FACT!

  4. #4. Everyone can share their thoughts or opinions, but facts are facts. YES, there is ALWAYS someone to blame. Nothing to do with sense. FACT: It is the City’s & Electric Company’s Job and have a Budget for it, to go around the City looking at Potential problems. It costs less for the Electric Company (on sunny days) to cut away branches, before they get a chance to come down on Electric Line etc. Yes, the storm caused misery for many thousands, BUT BUT, I wrote, that it could have costed LESS. There is a concept”PREVENTIVE” maintenance. Man does not control the weather. There is what to blame the Municipality and the Electric Company. BEING PREPARED. PERIOD. Any preparation would have lessened the suffering, misery and cost. FACT!

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