The unusual weather for this time of year has led to flooding in some parts of the country, most notably in the southern region near Eilat. Dozens of people have already been rescued from flood waters; tragically, two people, Mayan and Sahar Assur, lost their lives on Monday after being drowned.
Omer was rescued from rising flood waters near Eilat this week and related her experience on Radio 103FM.
"My friends and I were in a huge traffic jam, and we could see the flood waters rising and we realized that we weren't going to be able to outrun the water," she described. "We turned the car around but then we got stuck and the water started coming into the car, it was just pouring in unbelievably quickly.
"My friends were quicker to react than I was, and they climbed out onto the roof, but I didn't make it in time. Four hours passed from the time I was trapped in the car until we were rescued, and I was there alone in the car all that time, and the water was up to my neck and all I could see around me was mud; I couldn't see anything," she continued.
"The nights haven't been easy since then, I'm finding it hard to sleep. We're all having nightmares about water choking us. It was a miracle from Heaven that we survived."
Tragically, 18-year-old Sahar and 25-year-old Mayan Assur, siblings from Tiberias, lost their lives. Their bodies were recovered on Tuesday; they too had been caught in flood waters in the Negev Desert, in Nahal Paran.
Contact with Sahar and Mayan was lost on Monday and a large police contingent along with IDF soldiers searched for them for over 20 hours until their lifeless bodies were found.
"These are very hard moments for our entire city," said Boaz Yosef, head of the Tiberias city council. "The entire city has had its fingers crossed and has been praying and hoping for good news and for a Passover miracle, but instead the worst has transpired. We embrace the parents, Nini and Kinneret, and their remaining children, Tomer and Guy. The Assur family is a part of the Tiberias family and at such times we are all with them."
Mayan and Sahar had been traveling together with Shay Dahan, Mayan's partner, who was rescued from the floods. The three of them had been on their way home from Eilat and managed to alert the authorities that their car was trapped in flood waters on Route 40 before contact was lost with them. Their car began to fill with water; the three of them climbed out and were swept away. Shay was rescued four kilometers from the car after becoming trapped in rocks and was rescued the next morning.
"The car started to fill with water so we got out and I was swept away with my head above water, until I got stuck in some rocks," Shay related. She is now in Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva with light injuries and recovering from hypothermia.