Approximately 4,500 homes remained cut off from power Thursday morning – the second day of a powerful storm that first struck Israel Wednesday. 

Most of the power failures are in Netanya, Ashkelon, Dimona, Petah Tikva, Ra’anana, and the southern Hevron hills, the Israeli Electric Company reported. 

IEC crews are working around the country to get the power back up and running. 

Despite complaints from residents, Amir Kokhavi, a maintenance worker near Petah Tikva, said teams were working diligently. 

“We have increased staff so we can work 24 hours a day. We have also increased staff at the contact center and brought more supplies.”

“Yesterday we fixed about 300 problems, and we’re continuing to work hard,” Kokhavi added.  

Over 17,000 households were powerless throughout the day Wednesday, with that number dropping down to 10,000 in the evening.

Most of the failures were due strong wind gusts that caused trees to fall on power lines, the IEC stated. 

Road closings

In addition to electrical problems across the country, a number of roads remained blocked. The Traffic Police have released a full list:

• Jerusalem area: Highway 1 and 443 are opened for traffic. However, they may be blocked off again if weather worsens and the danger of slipping increases. 
• North: The following roads are closed or partially blocked – Route 899, Highway 89, Route 866, Route 8900, Highways 87, 91, 98, 99 and Route 978. 
• Judea and Samaria: The following roads are closed – Route 35 from the Tarqumia checkpoint to Hevron, Route 60, Route 90, Highway 356 from Har Homa, Highway 375 is blocked in both directions except for off-road vehicles.
• All roads in Kiryat Arab and Hevron are blocked off.