At least five people, including a seven-month old baby, were killed in Lebanon last week — the tragic legacy of the monster storm that struck the country. It was the worst of its kind in ten years, ripping into communities and destroying homes. Yet while the storm was unusually ferocious, flooding happens nearly every year in the country. Heavy rains cause chaos in low-lying areas and landslides in the mountains — damaging property and injuring people, sometimes fatally. In both 2012 and 2010, at least one person was killed as a result of extreme weather in Lebanon. The storms that cause these tragedies cannot be averted but is Lebanon’s failing infrastructure partly to blame for the extent of the destruction? That is certainly the view of Nadim Farajalla, Associate Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources at the American University of Beirut. Deathly shallows Farajalla identifies three major factors contributing to
Ben is a Beirut based investigative journalist. He served as Executive's resident data geek from 2013 to 2014, and as managing editor from 2014 to 2015.
