Tel Aviv inundations see two drown to death in flooded elevator
Family of victim accuse authorities for neglect of southern Tel Aviv neighborhood of Hatikva
A man and a woman, both in their twenties, died of drowning on Saturday after being trapped in a flooded elevator in southern Tel Aviv, after central Israel was hit by record-level precipitation.
The elevator got stuck on the parking level of a residential building in the Hatikva neighborhood, so that emergency services had to saw off the roof to get to the victims, one of whom was pronounced dead on the scene, with the other dying in the hospital.
Hebrew media reported on Sunday that the victims were Stav Harari, 25, and her partner, Dean Yaakov Shoshani, also 25.
Families of the deceased accused the authorities for responding too late to calls of emergency by the neighbors.
“How can it be that no one has yet come to speak to the family?,” a family member was anonymously quoted by Hebrew-language outlet Ynet. “No official representative, no one from the municipality or police came to tell us what happened.
“The infrastructure in the neighborhood hasn’t been dealt with for years -- the lack of care of the municipality for residents of this neighborhood is a criminal neglect.”
Emergency services received multiples reports of flooding from central Israeli megalopolis of Tel Aviv.
According to Ynet, the levels of precipitation rose to over 71 millimeters during a two-hour period.