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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 09, 2002

Snow Hits the Middle East

Workers struggled to clear more than a foot of snow from Jordan's capital on Tuesday after a rare blizzard in the Middle East.


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Workers struggled to clear more than a foot of snow from Jordan's capital on Tuesday after a rare blizzard in the Middle East.

Monday's storm �� accompanied by lashing wind and lightning �� stranded motorists, cut power lines, shut schools and delayed international flights in Jordan.

Meteorologist Ibrahim Saleh said snowfall abated Tuesday morning as the storm moved toward northern Iraq. He said temperatures would likely dip below freezing again, making streets icy.

Civil Defense spokesman Capt. Aref Tarawneh said dozens of people were stranded Monday night on Amman's hilly streets, which were shrouded in fog and covered with ice and snow.

Some Jordanians reveled in the unusually heavy snowfall, building snowmen and throwing snowballs from rooftops at pedestrians. Schools and universities were closed Tuesday.

Adel al-Hadid, a spokesman for the Jordan Electricity Co., said some areas in Amman and its suburbs remained without power because of storm damage.

Some airline flights were delayed at Amman's Queen Alia International Airport as crews worked all night to clear snow from the runways.

In Lebanon, which was also hit by the storm on Monday, a second snowstorm was expected by Wednesday. Government meteorologist Abdo Bajani said such sustained storms had not hit Lebanon in 32 years.

Mountain roads �� including the highway linking Beirut with the Syrian capital, Damascus �� remained closed, Lebanese police said.

Lebanon also faced a possible power shortage because choppy seas prevented three ships from unloading fuel oil for the country's main power stations.






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