Snow Storm Huda in Za’atari Camp(1)

Early in January 2015 forecasters predicted a snow storm. It looked serious enough to name so they called it Huda. Less snow was expected in Amman than in 2013, but the government declared a public holiday the day before anyway.

JEN holds the responsibility for storm-dewatering in the camp. This means that when it rains we call in trucks with large tanks and hoses and vacuum pumps and suck up the water. So while many of the staff delighted at the unexpected holiday those who live closest to camp as well as the JEN maintenance team members gathered to go over the emergency plan for responding to the storm. They divided in to two shifts of 5 people each, so that we could maintain operations over night if needed. We reviewed the maps of where water accumulated last time. We established how we would communicate during the operations.

The morning of the storm brought a lot of strong wind. The emergency team spent most of the day tying down water tanks that we had thought were too heavy to blow away, we had been wrong the wind was strong enough to take them. The protective tarp and part of the roof blew off of one of the caravan that we work from. Around mid-day the rain started. Light initially, but growing increasingly heavy. The emergency team leader, Rami, called in the de-watering trucks. Three at first, then three more, then a few hours later he called four more.

Temperatures fell, the rain turned to snow. The second shift had to join the first because there was too much for them to handle alone. My phone rang and buzzed non-stop with urgent requests for a truck to help. Even some of the caravans were taking on water. Streets were flooded so that emergency vehicles couldn’t get through. The storm water flowed into septic tanks causing them to overflow. One of the schools was flooded endangering their supply of text books. Tents were collapsing under the weight of the snow. We arranged to have 12 trucks the next day.

(To be continued)

[Tents collapsed under the snow]

[A break in the storm in Zaatari Camp]

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