Girls run while crossing a street during a sudden dust storm in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday. (AP)BEIRUT: Heavy rains and fierce winds pummeled countries across the Middle East over the weekend, sinking a ship off Israel's coast and killing a woman in Lebanon whose car was crushed when a tree fell on it. The storm brought unusually cold temperatures, below freezing in some spots. It ended weeks of unseasonably warm and dry weather that contributed to dozens of forest fires in Lebanon and helped feed a massive blaze in Israel that destroyed thousands of hectares of forest. It whipped up sandstorms in Jordan and Egypt, which closed its largest Mediterranean port. In Syria, snow blanketed the streets of Damascus for the first time this winter. Schools sent students home early and children ventured outside to play in the streets. Syrian authorities closed their main port of Tartous. Egyptian authorities said steady rain appeared to play a role in the collapse of a six-story textile factory in the northern city of Alexandria. Three persons were killed. Heavy rains flooded the streets in Beirut and snow forced some road closures in remote mountain towns in Lebanon. A woman died Saturday night when an uprooted tree fell on her car in the northern port city of Tripoli, authorities said. Flights in and out of Beirut's international airport were delayed. In the Gaza Strip, strong winds and lashing rains caused cracks in the pier and the breakfront at the harbor local fishermen use. No one was hurt, but civil defense workers and the Gaza maritime police were hauling boats out of the water and moving them and other fishing equipment to safer ground. Egypt was hit by rain and winds up to 60 kmph in Alexandria on the northern Mediterranean coast. Sandstorms blanketed Cairo for a second day Sunday, choking the air with dust and turning the sky a tepid beige. Doormen and shopkeepers tried in vain to keep the swirling dust at bay, sweeping sidewalks and dusting off parked cars. In Jordan, the weather department urged citizens to avoid valleys because of the threat of flash floods. Police said dust-laden winds reaching up to 90 km per hour obscured road visibility and forced the closure of major highways in the eastern desert linking Jordan with neighboring Iraq and southern roads leading to the ancient city of Petra, a major tourist attraction. Visibility was severely limited, and authorities closed major highways in the eastern desert linking the country with neighboring Iraq and southern roads leading to the ancient city of Petra, a major tourist attraction. A police statement said low visibility caused a 10-car pileup in a district south of the capital Amman, which injured 16 people. Cairo airport remained open while Amman airport reported up to two-hour delays in domestic and international flights.
