Tulkarem / PNN – Management at Thabet Thabet Memorial Hospital in Tulkarem was forced to evacuate patients from a majority of wings due to flooding.

Heavy rains are playing havoc with the northwestern West Bank governorate whose low-lying agricultural lands are shadowed by the Wall.

Medical staff was assisted yesterday by the local civil defense and police.

Hospital Director, Dr. Hossam Tanib said that several sections of the hospital were flooded by water leaking in from the top floor. Electricity was cut to the rain-soaked areas in order to preserve safety while patients were transferred to other hospitals.

Director of the Ministry of Health in Tulkarem, Dr. Naim Sabra rushed to the scene in order to limit the damage and take necessary precautions.

Dr. Sabra announced that he was approved to establish an emergency operations room in an area of the hospital that had not been flooded.

Out of commission are the intensive care unit, some operating rooms, the radiology and internal medicine units, and the laboratory.

The Health Ministry said that construction of a new top floor did not stand up to the rains that began falling this week. Although precautions had been taken, Dr. Sabra said, rainwater also leaked into sections of the basement.

In the Tulkarem Governorate several streets are flooded while some cars are broken down after trying to drive through. Police are diverting traffic to safer routes. Rainwater also flooded the lands of western Tulkarem near the Wall.

Further north in the West Bank Nablus is also facing serious flooding.

Comments (0)