Electric company worker
Electric company workerFlash 90

At least 10,000 households in Israel were left without electricity due to the snow, wind, and hail storm throughout the country, the Israel Electric Company (IEC) stated Wednesday night.

The IEC reported that the average time for power outages to be fixed is about three to four hours and that most of the failures are due strong wind gusts that cause trees to fall on power lines.

As of Wednesday evening, most of the power failures are in Netanya, Herzliya, Ra'anana and Rishon Lezion; earlier today, neighborhoods of Jerusalem and Samaria were affected. 

In addition, the electric company estimated that the demand for electricity nationwide Wednesday night would break all previous records - and is projected to reach some 12,200 megawatts.

Last year's snowstorm, by comparison, used 11,460 megawatts overall, and had broken the record at the time.

Nationwide power outages

Throughout Wednesday, Hod Hasharon, Ra'anana, Netanya, Petah Tikva, Ramat Hasharon and Ramat Gan experienced power outages, according to the IEC, as well as some neighborhoods of Tel Aviv.

Several Samaria communities also experienced outages, including Ariel, Itamar, Elon Moreh, Yitzhar, and Kiryat Netafim.

Several neighborhoods of Jerusalem were also affected, though not to the same extent; power issues were also reported in Yehud, Afula, Binyamina, Zihron Yaakov, Pardes Hana, and Kibbutz Mishmarot. 

Power cables were ripped due to high winds as well on Tuesday, with lines down in Akko (Acre), Petah Tikva and Ramat HaChayal in north Tel Aviv. One of the outages occurred after a tree fell onto a power line, hitting on a public bus full with passengers; no injuries were reported.

A faulty high voltage line temporarily disrupted the power supply room for all of Pardes Hana as well on Tuesday. 

Roads in Nahariya and Meggido were also blocked or partially blocked due to downed lines.