Very Bad Snow Storm

January 31, 2008
JLSS, like the rest of Lebanon, is going through a very bad snow storm. Like all other schools in our region, JLSS has been closed for the last two days. It has been snowing, nonstop, for the last three days. We were very happy with the snow when it started falling as we had gone through a month of freezing subzero temperatures without any rain. We are now under a thick blanket of snow (70 - 100 cm).
The Electric Company reduced the number of hours that it is supplying electricity. We have to rely much more on our generators now, and we need to compromise between rationing our diesel oil and the need to keep our children warm. We temporarily relocated the very few students that were left in some families (boarding homes) to other buildings to reduce diesel consumption.
Most of the older boys were collected by their parents before the storm got very bad. We only have around seventy children, mostly young ones, and older ones who live in Beirut and where unable to leave. We do not have enough older boys to help with the extra work imposed on us like shoveling snow and getting food to the younger children in the many buildings around our campus. We also have no snow-shoveling equipment for this unprecedented situation.
Two of our bakers, Habib Haddad and Rudwan Azam; and two of our cooks, Dany Abbas and Rabia Khater; walked this morning from Khirbet Kanafar, on foot, to provide our children with bread and food.
Many tree branches succumbed to the heavy weight of snow and are lying broken on the ground. We praise God that we have everything we need. We are well stocked with food and heating oil. The employees who live at school or near it are doing a wonderful job, especially the bakery, kitchen, boarding, and maintenance teams.
We now know that this is going to be a storm on the history records of our country. We hope it will not be a major disaster.
The snow is an excellent background for watching the many beautiful birds around our school. They are getting very close to us to remind us to leave them bits of bread to manage through this tough weather.
We pray for all the people around us who, because of the dire economic situation and high prices, do not have enough heating oil, if any, in their homes. We also pray that God may bless and protect the wonderful teams of employees who stayed in our school, or walk in the snow daily, to look after our children.
3rd of February Update:
The president of the municipal council of Khirbet Kanafar, Mr. Milhim Al-Zaraour, kindly sent a bulldozer on Saturday 2nd of February 2008 to clear the snow from the internal roads of our school and our parking lot, in addition to clearing the snow from the road leading to the school. We express our most sincere gratitude to Mr. Zarzour and his council for this wonderful help to our school.
Students started returning to school Sunday afternoon February 3, 2008 after all the roads were cleared from the snow.
Click the links bellow for more pictures of the snow storm.
Pictures A of the Snow Storm
Pictures B of the Snow Storm