Weekend storms wreck NIS 30m. in crops

While the weekend’s storm did wonders for Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee), it caused severe damage to crops.

By SHARON UDASIN
Rain and lightnight on farmland 390 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Rain and lightnight on farmland 390
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
While the weekend’s storm did wonders for Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee), it caused severe damage to crops.
Floods, hail and strong winds damaged caused about NIS 30 million worth of damage to agriculture, including thousands of dunams of avocados, citrus, other fruits and vegetables, field crops and ornamental plants, according to KANAT: The Insurance Fund for Nature Damages in Agriculture.
KANAT accumulated data to reach this assessment, as of Monday morning, from 400 points of damage throughout the country.
Not only were crops destroyed and inundated by floods, but the structures that support them – such as greenhouses and netting – were widely damaged by winds, according to KANAT.
A spokeswoman from the Agriculture Ministry confirmed that there was a great deal of damage during the weekend’s extreme weather.
For example, on Friday morning, the roof of a barn collapsed, causing ministry officials to rush to the site and evacuate both injured cows and cow carcasses, the spokeswoman said.
The Kinneret, however, stood at 212.12 meters below sea level as of Monday morning, 35 centimeters above its level last Tuesday, before the precipitation began, according to the Water Authority.
While the rain from the weekend and throughout the season was certainly encouraging, Water Authority spokesman Uri Schor told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday night that the country needs two more consecutive winters like this one to compensate for the past seven years of drought.
During the period of February 28 to March 4, the largest amount of rain fell in the central mountains, where between 150 and 200 millimeters of water accumulated, according to Israel Meteorological Service. In the northern Golan and the Galilee, about 130 to 160 millimeters accumulated.