A giant wave today inundated the old city of Tiberius, killing at least 15 persons and injuring more than twenty, according to information telephoned to the Jerusalem office of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by the Tiberias police.
The total number of victims is as yet not known. The dead include Jews and non-Jews who inhabited the section.
Police military troops and Jewish colonists from neighboring colonies are working frantically to remove the inhabitants in trucks to near-by Jewish colonies. The entire section is under water and the property loss is expected to be high.
The rescue work is under the personal supervision of District Commissioner Edward Keith-Roach of the Northern district.
According to information reaching the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from Tiberias police officials, a heavy thunderstorm, followed by an unprecedented heavy rain, struck the city about mid-day. The storm swept the lower part of the city, forming a heavy flood which swept through, demolishing houses and completely submerging the old city.
The population, consisting mainly of Jews, was caught by the suddeness of the storm and was unable to escape in time.
As most of the dwellings were without cement, the stones of which they were built were washed away, destroying everything.
Police officials still are uncertain as to the total number of dead. Searching parties are still working among the ruins, finding here and there dead and injured. All who escaped have been placed in the near-by Jewish colonies, where first aid and refugee stations were immediately established.
According to the latest census, Tiberias has a population of 8,601, sixty per cent, of whom are Jews.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
