From Marsha Brown in Kiryat Shmona
Sunday, July 23, 2006
You may have heard on the radio that close to 40 Katyushot fell in or around Kiryat Shmona. In fact, from what I can see from my eyrie, most of them fell outside of town, although several were nearby. There were a few which fell within the town limits; as far as I can see, they were in open areas. Some were near homes, and again, as far as I can tell, there was probably property damage, and perhaps someone injured from shrapnel or broken glass.... I hope it's not anything more serious. While I did see an ambulance head out from the Red Magen David to one of the neighborhoods, it didn't look like it was in a hysterical hurry.
Of course, visibility is very bad. The rockets that hit in open areas or near trees cause fires; many of the sites are on the hills above us, difficult to reach. To save the energy of the firefighters, who are responsible for a huge geographic area, no attempt is made to put out the fires that are not threatening. Several such fires were still burning when I came home this afternoon, at least one of which has been burning since yesterday. The only problem is that we get very strong winds here in the afternoons, and the town has filled with smoke. The last barrage lit a few more fires, adding to the smoke covering the town. In the few minutes it's taken me to write this, visibility has gone from poor to nonexistent, and the apartment has filled with smoke. You can imagine how uncomfortable it is in the shelters. Not all of the shelters have ventilators (fans).
Over the weekend, with the heavy barrage on Saturday, a number of people left. We were expecting a number of families to return, after being out of town for a week or more, but evidently, the barrage yesterday discouraged them from doing so. I encountered one older immigrant couple, who don't speak any Hebrew: their family left for Tel Aviv, leaving them alone here. While they had some needs which we were able to fulfill, their inability to communicate or understand anything means that minor problems become major ones, and everything becomes overwhelming, when under ordinary circumstances, they might be able to cope.
At my neighborhood center, we received more materna and similac this morning, and there was a "window" of several hours duration, when the stores were open. One woman called my center from another neighborhood: she'd gone shopping, but the supermarket was out of the diapers [nappies] of the size she needed. They might be getting in another delivery tomorrow or Tuesday. Her local grocery doesn't carry them, and her neighborhood center had run out of the size she needed. Luckily, we still had a few of the right size, and her husband picked them up.
The supermarket told all customers that they'd be getting another delivery tomorrow, but they don't know if that will include lemons, and they're all out right now. If the only thing we're missing is lemons, in my opinion, we're in good shape, all things considered.
