32-year-old dies while saving a family from floods in Nahariya
The man was the fifth weather-related casualty in the past week of heavy storms in Israel.
By MAARIV ONLINENahariya man drowns in flood while attempting to save others(photo credit: NOAM FLAKSA/TPS)
The stormy weather has returned to Israel, taking the life of a 32-year-old Motti Ben Shabat, who was found dead in Nahariya after being reported missing for several hours. The man was the fifth weather-related casualty in the past week of heavy storms in Israel.MDA paramedic Eran Friedlander said "we arrived with the ambulance at the beach near the marina. About 100 meters north of the Ga'aton stream estuary on the waterline, we saw the man was unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing."He continued, saying that "the sea was very turbulent and very large amounts of water flowed around us, we evacuated the man from the shore on a field stretcher while performing CPR to the ambulance where we continued to give treatment in the form of CPR and medication but unfortunately we had to determine his death. "A friend of Ben Shabat's from Nahariya, who witnessed the incident, told Channel 12 News "There was a guy in the car who drowned. He jumped into the water to help rescue those trapped inside, the current pulled him into the car and he disappeared inside after that. Now we already know he is at sea. We are mourning and hurt, I've known him from childhood. "He criticized the events leading up to death of his friend, "the infrastructure is in a catastrophic situation, from disaster to disaster, you learn nothing. The car was trying to turn away from the flood, but got cornered and things escalated from there.Amit Ben Simon, one of the first responders in Nahariya, was interviewed on 103 FM, saying "I was one of the people that jumped into the water. I saw the car drifting into the current, withing a few minutes it was completely flooded. The car flipped over, the hood of the car plunged into the water and that flooded the entire car. I saw the car drowning with my own eyes. The windows were closed and there was a limit to how loud you can shout. I just looked on and didn't think too much of it.""We were three who jumped to the rescue," the witness continued, "none of us knew each other. I just happened to arrive there and encounter the situation. We rescued two men and a woman. We broke the rear windshield using our elbows and fists. The car was full of water as soon as I could identify the driver and made sure everyone that was stuck inside was out."Regarding the death, Ben Simon said, "Only after we were rescued them did I realize that there was still someone there and we started banging on the car to see if there was another person inside the car, but the harsh weather conditions made it too difficult to continue, so we waited for the firefighters to come to the rescue."Another friend of the deceased, a resident of Nahariya, responded to the tragic event, saying "I arrived at the scene after that, we thought there might be a miracle and we might find him alive but then we got the bitter news that he passed away. It happened in the neighborhood, at an intersection connecting neighborhoods within Nahariya. I've never seen anything like that, a river flowing instead of the road."She added that "from what I heard, he volunteered to help and managed to save people, as you know, and that's where he found his death. That characterizes him, he was a guy who was all about giving and helping others, a true friend."
