Two children rescued from perlious floods caused by downpour
Children, aged 6 and 9, evacuated to hospital in Hadera with hypothermia after attempting to stay afloat on sinking vehicle amid floods caused by torrential rains across the country; their 70-year-old grandfather also rescued in mission before current drags police vehicle into depths.
Ariel (7) and Shani (10) of Harish who were on a trip with their 70-year-old grandfather just of Hadera were rescued Friday morning by the police after their vehicle became almost completely engulfed by floods caused by an almost unbroken downpour and storm that has swept across the country since Thursday night.
Magen David (MDA) paramedics said the children were evacuated to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera in light condition having suffered from hypothermia.
In video footage taken of the incident in Maor near Hadera, the two children can be seen sitting atop a vehicle as it sinks into the giant swamp.
Policemen performing the rescue mission also fell prey to the perilous weather conditions as the floods proved unable to resist attempting to swallow their vehicle into its depths. Firefighters were duly called to the scene to extricate the people using a boat.
The children's father, Yair Yagar, shared the harrowing experiences of rescuing his family with Ynet at the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center: "We were standing on the road above and saw the children on the roof of the car below. We tried finding a way to get down to them. We eventually found a route and I went down with a senior MDA paramedic to try and future out how to cross over to them. We jumped into the water with our clothes on and got the children out."
"The children were on a trip with their grandfather. At some point they must have reached a point they thought they could pass, but the vehicle sunk into the water. He got the children onto the roof and remained in the car to call police and emergency services. I got the message from my mother when we were on Highway 6. I spoke to him, got a sense of where he was and drove there," the father continued, saying he arrived at the scene moments before the paramedics and firefighting forces.
"The children were sopping wet and frozen. They were treated with heating blankets in the ambulance and then taken to the hospital. The children fell asleep when they got there and will stay there for observation. The grandfather is in the emergency room. When they tried getting him out, cops also sunk into the water. All's well that ends well—both he and the children are okay," he concluded.
MDA paramedic Chai Pinchas also recalled the dramatic incident, saying “We parked the ambulance, took our medical equipment and went on foot to the scene,” said.
“We crossed a stream and got to the edge of the puddle which the whole time stormy rains were falling on us,” he continued. “We saw in the distance a few meters away the jeep in the water, with the driver sitting inside and the children sitting on the roof. We entered the puddle, climbed on the car and extricated the children and took them to the ambulance.”
Rescue teams from the firefighting service were eventually required to connect the jeep to their vehicle using a boat and rescue its occupants, which now included the man and the officers who had attempted to save him.
Elsewhere throughout the day, the rapid winds caused minor damage as trees collapsed onto parked cars in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and as trampolines and other objects were propelled into the air.
Ahiya Raved, Hassan Shaalan, Raanan Ben Zur, Itay Blumenthal, Meir Ohayon and Gilad Carmeli contributed to this report.
