Center for Research, Documentation and Information of Natural Hazards in Israel

The following review includes floods that caused loss of life or significant damages exceeding millions of NIS.

Since the establishment of the State of Israel, floods have been the most serious natural disasters that have affected the country.

Particularly serious floods occurred in the north of Israel in January 1969 (on a scale expected to occur once every 200 years). The winter of 1991/2 saw record precipitation in central Israel exceeding that recorded over a century and more. The precipitation caused floods in the coastal streams and significant damage totaling hundreds of millions of dollars in the densely-populated coastal regions. Record floods occurred in the river beds in the Negev, causing particularly extensive damage to the road system.

Date	Event	Location	Fatalities	Financial damage (NIS millions)	Source	Further information
May 8, 2014	Unseasonable floods; floods in Eilat and at Taba Border Crossing	Judean Desert, dry river beds in Arava and Eilat		Several million shekels in agricultural damage	Israel Hayom	F1F2F3F4F5
Jan. 7, 2013	Part of Separation Wall collapses in Bat Hefer, 100 homes evacuated, hundreds of homes left without electricity	Throughout Israel			Ynet	F1F2F3F4F5
Nov. 18, 2012	Local event of exceptional force creating maximum velocity flood; flooding of quarry at entrance to Eilat	Southern Negev – Nahal Amram and other river beds in area			adssc.org
Jan. 1, 2010	Collapse of bridges, damage to roads and infrastructure	Ramat Negev			Ramat Negev Regional Council	F1F2
Mar. 2, 2009	Flood	Nahal Tzin			Ynet	F1
May 14, 2007	Extreme and sudden rain incident leading to severe flooding (occurring once in 50 years), leading to death of four walkers	Nahal Qumran	4		Ha’aretz	F1
Feb. 3, 2006	Flood	Nahal Arava near Eilat			Natural Disasters in Israel booklet	F1 Hebrew sources
Oct. 29, 2004	Flood	Dead Sea – Judean Desert and Arava dry stream beds			Natural Disasters in Israel booklet	F1 Hebrew sources
Feb. 24-26, 2003	Floods	Throughout Israel			Ofakim 79-80	F1F2
Feb. 20-21, 2003	Floods	Central and Northern Israel			Soil Erosion Research Station	Hebrew source
Jan. 27-29, 2003	Floods	Northern Israel, Nahal Taninim, eastern Golan Heights			Soil Erosion Research Station	Hebrew sourceF1
Jan. 21, 2003	Floods	Tel Aviv and Central Israel			Soil Erosion Research Station	Hebrew source
Nov. 5, 2002	Floods	Nahal Harod, Nahal Yosef, Afula – Beit Shemesh highway			Soil Erosion Research Station	Hebrew source
Oct. 30-31, 2002	Flood	Jerusalem to Eilat			Soil Erosion Research Station	Hebrew source
Oct. 15, 2002	Flood	Between Mehola and Argaman			Soil Erosion Research Station	מקור Hebrew source
Oct. 24, 2000	Flooding of homes and roads	Tel Aviv and central Israel			Soil Erosion Research Station	מקורק1 Hebrew source
Oct. 14-15, 2000	Floods	Southern Israel			Soil Erosion Research Station	מקור Hebrew source
May 1-2, 2001	Flooding	Throughout Israel			Soil Erosion Research Station	מקור Hebrew source
Oct. 20, 1997	Flooding, 3 people drowned after their car was swept away	Nahal Kahlon in the Negev, Nachal Yishai in Judean Desert	4	Tens of millions	Ha’aretz
Mar. 18, 1997	Flooding	Nahal Alexander		20	Ha’aretz	Nahal Alexander Drainage Project to Prevent Floods
Jan. 24, 1997	Damage to infrastructure	Ra’anana – Kfar Sava			Ha’aretz
Jan. 24, 1997	Flooding	Negev, Judean Desert			Ha’aretz
May 18, 1996	Flooding			19	Ha’aretz	Plan to Prevent Floods in Fureidis
Apr. 26, 1996	Flooding	Central Israel, Nahal Ayalon		1.4	Ha’aretz
Feb. 26, 1996	Flooding	Nahal Kaneh (tributary of the Yarkon)	8	2.8	Ha’aretz	Claim submitted to Menorah Insurance Co. for floods of winter of 94
Feb. 16, 1996	Flooding	Nahal Tamar	1		Ha’aretz
Apr. 27, 1995	Declaration of agricultural natural disaster in communities in the Zichron Yaacov area	Zichron Yaacov, Bat Shlomo, Givat Ada		10	Ha’aretz
Mar. 20, 1995	Flooding	Fureidis		27	Ha’aretz	Damages to approx. 200 farmers
Nov. 14, 1994	Flooding	Negev		2	Ha’aretz	Damage to Mekorot water company facilities
Nov. 7, 1994	Destruction in Golda Park, roads closed	Nahal Revivim			Ha’aretz
Nov. 6, 1994	Bodies of men from Kfar Rupin found	Nahal Harod	2		Ha’aretz
Mar. 23, 1992	Flooding	Haifa Bay		40	Ha’aretz	Damage to factories
Mar. 2, 1992	Two children swept away in floods	Nahal Ada	2		Ha’aretz
Mar. 2, 1992	Flooding	Throughout Israel		288	Ha’aretz
Mar. 2, 1992	Damage to factories and collapse of buildings	Tefen		Millions of dollars	Ha’aretz
Feb. 28, 1992	Flooding	Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Bialik		13.5	Ha’aretz	Damage to apartments
Feb. 27, 1992	Flooding of the bridge over the Yavne-Palmachim road	Throughout Israel, Nahal Sorek		30	Ha’aretz
Feb. 26, 1992	Soldier killed in flood	Nahal Yissachar	1		Ha’aretz
Feb. 19, 1992	Flooding	Galilee + Golan			Ha’aretz	Damage to approx. 30,000 dunams of land
Feb. 14, 1992	Flooding	Beit Shean Valley		115	Ha’aretz
Feb. 13, 1992	Floods in Fureidis for fourth time	Nahal Dalia			Ha’aretz
Feb. 10-11, 1992	Floods in Qalansawa for the fourth time, damage to roads	Throughout Israel, Nahal Alexander			Ha’aretz
Feb. 5, 1992	River beds in south flood	Southern Israel			Ha’aretz
Feb. 5, 1992	Ayalon Freeway blocked for third time in the season; floods; Road No. 4 closed	Tel Aviv, Nahal Lachish, Ashdod		10	Ha’aretz
Feb. 2, 1992	Tributaries of the Kishon in the Zippori area cause flooding to homes 4 times	Kiryat Ata			Ha’aretz	פסק דין Hebrew court ruling
Jan. 21, 1992	11 areas declared natural disaster zones	Shikma basin, Lachish, Ayalon, Yarkon, Palik, Alexander, Hadera, Menashe, Dalia, Maharal			Ha’aretz
Jan. 13, 1992	Collapse of wave break causes flooding of neighborhoods	Tel Aviv			Ha’aretz
Jan. 7, 1992	Floods in warehouses belonging to Kli Zemer and in Champion Motors lots	Tel Aviv		19	Ha’aretz
Jan. 3, 1992	Body of man found on flooded farmland	Kfar Glickson	1		Ha’aretz
Jan. 3, 1992	Damage to Ezra neighborhood in Tel Aviv due to floods	Tel Aviv			Ha’aretz
Jan. 2, 1992	Driver drowns in river bed course	Nahal Natuf	1		Ha’aretz
Jan. 2, 1992	Body of man swept away in flood found	Pardes Hannah	1		Ha’aretz
Dec. 29, 1991	Occupants of car swept away together with the vehicle	Nahal Sorek, Yavne	3		Ha’aretz
Dec. 15, 1991	Ashdod neighborhoods flooded	Nahal Lachish			Ha’aretz
Dec. 15, 1991	Bridge collapses	Nahal Sorek, Yavne			Ha’aretz
Dec. 14, 1991	Nahal Beersheva floods its banks, cutting off the Neve Noy neighborhood	Beersheva			Ha’aretz
Dec. 12, 1991	Floods	Throughout Israel		10	Ha’aretz	Damage to agriculture
Dec. 11, 1991	Volunteer swept away in flood	Nahal Me’arot	1		Ha’aretz
Dec. 11, 1991	Floods in Fureidis	Nahal Dalia		0.5	Ha’aretz
Dec. 4, 1991	Floods on Ayalon Freeway				Ha’aretz
Dec. 4, 1991	2 soldiers swept away in river bed	Nahal Natuf	2		Ha’aretz
Dec. 2, 1991	Debris penetrates water drillings	Gush Dan			Ha’aretz
Oct. 91 – Mar. 92	Flood season	Throughout Israel			Hydrological incidents – winter of 1991/92	ק1
Mar. 25, 1991	Bodies found	Wadi Aro’er	2		Ha’aretz
Mar. 25, 1991	Body found	Mishmar Hanegev (lake)	1		Ha’aretz
Jan. 27, 1991	Roads closed in Negev	Negev			Ha’aretz
Jan. 5, 1990	Body of man found close to Nevot intersection; massive floods	Beit Shean – Afula			Ha’aretz
Jan. 5, 1991	Crops destroyed, homes flooded, and roads swept away	Jezreel Valley, Gilboa			Ha’aretz
Dec. 20, 1987	Reserve duty soldier missing, body of officer found in Nahal Kidron	Ein Fashkha, Nahal Kidron	2		Ha’aretz
Oct. 21, 1987	Estimate of damages due to floods in Beersheva	Beersheva		1.6	Ha’aretz
Feb. 5, 1987	Body of young man swept away in flood in Nov. 1986 identified	Nahal Shikma			Ha’aretz
Dec. 20, 1985	Floods	Throughout Israel			Ha’aretz	Families evacuated
Jan. 26, 1983	Wells damaged, homes collapse	Jerusalem			Ha’aretz
Jan. 2, 1983	Blizzards cut off communities in north, power cuts throughout the country	North and throughout Israel			Ha’aretz
Apr. 12, 1982	Flashflood in Nahal Paran, road blocked	Arava			Ha’aretz
Jan. 1, 1981	Cloudburst causes floods	Eilat			Ha’aretz
Dec. 30, 1980	Tourist and 4-year old girl drown in Nahal Zin and Nahal Zohar	Negev	2		Ha’aretz
Dec. 14, 1980	Damage to prefabricated buildings	Bat Yam			Ha’aretz
Jan. 27, 1980	Body of man found in flooded channel	Wadi Rubin	1		Ha’aretz
Jan. 18, 1980	Two women swept away in river bed	Nahal Habsor	2		Ha’aretz
Jan. 13, 1980	Netanya				Ha’aretz
Dec. 20, 1979	Jordan Valley highway flooded and covered in debris and large stones	Jordan Valley			Ha’aretz
Dec. 10, 1979	Floods in Ein Yahav and Massada – Ein Gedi road	Dead Sea and Arava			Ha’aretz
Dec. 7, 1979	Road collapses, serious disruption to traffic, 50 apartments flooded	Tel Aviv and Jerusalem			Ha’aretz
Nov. 31, 1979	Bridge collapses in Nahalat Binyamin due to strong flow of water in Nahal Ayalon	Tel Aviv			Ha’aretz
Oct. 23-24, 1979	Two Bedouin children drown, Nahal Beersheva floods, roads blocked	Negev	2		Ha’aretz
Jan. 19, 1978	Estimate of damages in Sha’ar Hanegev and Nahal Shikma	Nahal Shikma and Sha’ar Hanegev		1 (IL)	Ha’aretz
Dec. 25, 1977	Woman swept away, cars rescued by use of ropes	Nahal Shikma and Nahal Tamar	1		Ha’aretz
Nov. 28, 1976	40 apartments flooded, buildings collapse, power cuts, fields flooded	Northern Israel, Haifa, Tivon			Ha’aretz
Oct. 26, 1976	Flooding				Ha’aretz	Traffic jams caused loss of thousands of work hours
May 22, 1976	Funds allocated to build bridge over Nahal Grar	Negev		3 (IL)	Ha’aretz
Mar. 22, 1976	Be’eri Bridge collapses, dam on Nahal Ha’arava collapses and is renovated	Negev and Arava			Ha’aretz
Mar. 14, 1976	River beds in Judean Desert flood, roads swept	Judean Desert and Arava			Ha’aretz
Feb. 7, 1976	Floods in Tel Aviv	Tel Aviv			Ha’aretz
Dec. 28, 1975	Body of woman found after she was swept away at Hadodot Bridge	Jordan River	1		Ha’aretz	ק1
Dec. 18, 1975	Nahal Be’eri bridge flooded	Nahal Be’eri			Ha’aretz
Sept. 30, 1975	6 youths swept away and drown in Nahal Dragot	Dead Sea	6		Ha’aretz	ק1
Sept. 30, 1975	First winter rains cause floods	Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Northern Israel			Ma’ariv	ק1
Feb. 20-24, 1975	Damage to infrastructure and agriculture	Arava and Eilat			Ben Zvi & Kornitz, The 1975 Floods in Sinai and the Arava
Dec. 12, 1974	Nahal Ayalon floods, 3-story building collapses in Shabazi neighborhood, 2 families evacuated	Tel Aviv			Ha’aretz
Dec. 5, 1974	4 bridges closed due to flooding	Negev			Ha’aretz
Mar. 6, 1974	Estimate of damages to the Arava highway and roads in the Negev	Negev and Arava		24 (IL)	Ha’aretz
Mar. 4, 1974	Allenby Bridge flooded	Jordan River			Ha’aretz
Feb. 21, 1974	Arava highway closed due to flooding of Nahal Paran	Arava			Ha’aretz
Feb. 21, 1974	Family rescued from Nahal Zohar	Jordan Valley		5 (IL)	Ha’aretz
Jan. 15, 1974	Fierce rain, flooding, and disruption to traffic	Tel Aviv			Ha’aretz
Nov. 11, 1973	Roads damaged and closed	Eilat		Hundreds of thousands (IL)	Ha’aretz
Dec. 31, 1972	Derekh Hashalom flooded (a recurrent phenomenon)	Nahal Ayalon			Ha’aretz
Mar. 22, 1972	River beds impassable				Ha’aretz
Feb. 7, 1972	Floods in Jerusalem, Gethsemane Church flooded	Jerusalem			Ha’aretz
Jan. 26, 1972	Car swept away	Nahal Hever			Ha’aretz
Jan. 18, 1972	50 apartments flooded	Jerusalem			Ha’aretz
Dec. 30, 1971	Dozens of cars swept away and rescued	Sdom			Ha’aretz
Dec. 9, 1971	Floods and disruption to traffic	Throughout Israel			Ha’aretz
Nov. 19, 1971	Homes flooded, Jericho – Ein Gedi road blocked	Jerusalem			Ha’aretz
Apr. 18, 1971	7,000 dunams of land flooded in the reclaimed area	Hula Valley			Ha’aretz
Apr. 18, 1971	Water facility flooded and put out of use	Kibbutz Masada			Ha’aretz
Apr. 14, 1971	Homes flooded, roads cut off, Allenby Bridge flooded	Jerusalem, Jordan River			Ha’aretz
Jan. 17, 1971	Severe flooding	Kfar Sava, Ra’anana, Herzliya			Ha’aretz
Nov. 8, 1970	Floods in Nahal Paran and Nahal Tzofar, road to Eilat cut off, cars trapped between the two streams, roads swept away	Eilat and Arava			Ha’aretz
Nov. 11, 1969	Government allocates funds for repair of damaged drainage channels			2 (IL)	Ha’aretz
Mar. 27, 1969	Allenby Bridge closed due to mud	Jordan Valley		0.4 (IL)	Ha’aretz
Mar. 20, 1969	Damage since January at Argaman Beach	Netanya			Ha’aretz
Feb. 7, 1969	40,000 dunams of the reclaimed area in the Hula flooded	Throughout Israel		10 (IL)	Ha’aretz
Feb. 3, 1969	Damage to drainage system	Throughout Israel		1.5 (IL)	Ha’aretz
Feb. 3, 1969	8,500 dunams of farmland flooded	Throughout Israel		Hundreds of thousands of IL	Ha’aretz
Feb. 3, 1969	Damage to farms in Na’aman regional council	Na’aman regional council		4 (IL)	Ha’aretz
Jan. 30, 1969	Snow causes collapse of supporting wall in Abu Tor	Jerusalem	2		Ha’aretz
Jan. 30, 1969	40 houses collapse	Judea and Samaria			Ha’aretz
Jan. 30, 1969	Floods in communities around the Sea of Galilee	Sea of Galilee			Ha’aretz
Jan. 26, 1969	Floods in Herzliya Pituach and Kishon, homes evacuated	Herzliya, Kishon			Ha’aretz
Jan. 28, 1969	Kinneret overflows, Allenby Bridge flooded and closed	Jordan Valley			Ha’aretz
Jan. 26, 1969	Synagogue in Moshav Tohelet collapses	Lod			Ha’aretz
Jan. 24, 1969	8,000 chicks drown, 250 beehives swept away, 1,100 mm. of rain in Yagur	Ein Hamifratz, Yagur		Hundreds of thousands of IL	Ha’aretz	IDF Engineering Corps installs walkway for pedestrians
Jan. 19-23, 1969	Wadi Shomriya floods, blocking the Haifa-Nazareth highway, Kishon floods, flooding in homes and factories in Yagur and Eilat, Sea of Galilee rises to 208.3 m.	Western Galilee, Haifa, Nazareth, Yagur, Eilat			Ofakim 1	ק1ק2ק3
Jan. 13-14, 1969	Peak flows in the Northern Jordan river and northern Israel rivers. Flooding in Nahal Ayalon and Ezra neighborhood of Tel Aviv, river beds flood	Tel Aviv, Western Galilee			Ha’aretz
Jan. 3, 1969	80 meter section of the Haifa-Nahariya railroad swept away, floods	Haifa-Nahariya, Bustan Hagalil			Ha’aretz
Dec. 29, 1968	Strong flow in Galilee streams, Allenby Bridge flooded and closed for three weeks	Nahal Beit Ha’emek, Nahal Kaziv, Nahal Ga’aton			Ha’aretz
Dec. 16, 1968	Jerusalem Blvd. in Jaffa flooded	Jaffa			Ha’aretz
Dec. 10, 1968	Southern Israel cut off, Erez road closed, flooding in Tel Aviv	Southern Israel, Tel Aviv			Ha’aretz
Dec. 8, 1968	Unusually heavy rains (337/365 mm)	Akko			Ha’aretz
May 27, 1968	Flooding	Eilat			Ha’aretz
Jan. 21-22, 1968	Bridge leading to Moshav Avadon flooded, damage to infrastructures	Hula, Beit Hillel, Nahal Kaziv			Ha’aretz
Feb. 24, 1967	Land flooded due to rising level of eastern channel of the Jordan River	Holata, Shamir, Hula Valley settlements			Ha’aretz
Feb. 2, 1967	Drainage channel constructed after flooding occurs 3 times	Beit Shikma, Geah, Talme Yaffe			Ha’aretz
Jan. 29, 1967	Floods due to strong flow in Nahal Shikma	Beit Shikma, Geah, Talme Yaffe			Ha’aretz
Jan. 24, 1967	Bloods in Beit Shikma, communities cut off	Geah, Talmei Yaffe			Ha’aretz
Jan. 19, 1967	Floods and communities cut off, Nahal Ayalon overflows	Beit Shikma, Geah, Talmei Yaffe, Nahal Ayalon			Ha’aretz
Jan. 5, 1967	Truck carrying soldiers swept away in Nahal Shikma	Nahal Shikma			Ha’aretz
Nov. 14, 1966	Cloudburst destroys 250 dunams of vegetables, river beds blocked, fields flooded due to forestry works by the JNF	Menachemya		0.5 (IL)	Ha’aretz
Mar. 11, 1966	Flooding	Between Eilat and Yotvata			Natural Disasters in Israel booklet	ק1
Nov. 24, 1964	Damage to crops, buildings, and to Jaffa Port	North, Galilee, Ohalo, Akko, Central Israel		0.36 IL	Ha’aretz
July 13, 1964	Damage to water facilities due to rising level of Sea of Galilee, part of the Tzemach-Ma’agan road collapses	Southern Sea of Galilee			Ha’aretz
Mar. 22, 1964	4,000 dunams of farmland flooded for third time	Hula Valley			Ha’aretz
Mar. 8, 1964	80,000 tons of citrus fruit lost	Coastal plain		3.2 IL	Ha’aretz
Dec. 10, 1963	Land flooded, damage to agriculture, Ayalon Bridge flooded	Lachish area, Central Israel			Ha’aretz
Jan. 28,1963	Floods in Hula Valley due to topographical changes following the reclamation project	Hula Valley		0.5 IL	Ha’aretz
Feb. 7, 1957	10,000 dunams of farmland flooded, 2,500 dunams of wheat and hundreds of dunams of vegetables damaged	Hula, Jordan Valley			Ha’aretz

Date

Event

Location

Fatalities

Financial damage (NIS millions)

Source

Further information