Fire disaster

The fires have reached an uncontrollable state. The govt has declared Haifa and the Mt. Carmel range a state of emergency. 75,000 have been evacuated, Haifa alone has 700 homes uninhabitable. Property totally destroyed. Calls over social media are published asking people to host fleeing families. And as everything in Israel, the fire is politicised as an act of terrorism. In fact the newspapers are calling it the Intifada of Fire. Though the first fires were natural disasters ... the govt is convinced that later fires were set on purpose by arab arsonists. Arrests have been made. Besides Croatian, Cypriot, Italian, Greek and Russian fire-fighting jets flown in to help, now even the Palestinian authorities have sent fire-fighters and Israel as accepted it. Something good coming out of a disaster. Jordan, Turkey and Egypt have also started sending aid to Israel.
http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/in-israel/local/700-homes-in-haifa-uninhabitable-authorities-say-24984
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4884314,00.html
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/LIVE-1.755044/701465108
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4884247,00.html

Man huddling in
Jaffa Street in
the cold

It's been a very very cold day. Daytime temp. was only 6 degrees. The wind was biting cold though the sun shone throughout the day. Not much help. What we need is rain. If only the rain clouds would stop above us and start letting down the rain. Tonight it will drop to 4 degrees. I'll have to wear several layers of T-shirts because I gave away most of my winter clothing to the poor with M. Teresa's sisters.

My hamstring and sciatica is a little better today. The bank was calling to say our library account was overdrawn and we're in the red. So I had to get money from East Jerusalem and go to the bank in West Jerusalem, a good 3.5 kms walk. I couldn't make it with my leg swollen, so at Damascus Gate I took a taxi to the bank at 7.30am. Reached the bank at 8am to find out it's closed for Friday. What??? It says clearly that the banks are open on Fridays from 8am to 12pm. But today it decided to close. In Jerusalem (maybe throughout the country too), foreigners will not be served at bank branches; a foreigner must go to the head office to do transactions. Wasted my taxi fare ... I was so angry. With only 20 shekels in my pocket which is not enough for a taxi fare (it costs 50 shekels or more), I walked home in the cold and pain.