Rain batters Syrian refugee camps as winter looms
Displaced Syrians living in refugee camps are dreading winter as they dig their tents out from under the recent flooding.
ALEPPO, Syria — Ismail used a shovel to dig a watercourse in the mud to keep the water from his tent in the Bab al-Salam refugee camp on the Syrian-Turkish border. But his efforts were in vain as his luggage sank into the ground inside the tent before he could take any of it out.
The heavy rains on Oct. 16 were unexpected. The first rainfall this winter left dozens of tents under water and mud before the displaced could prepare to save their belongings.
About 100 tents set up in a low area inside the camp were fully submerged. Some of those whose tents were set up on higher land got lucky and water only dripped through their tents.
Busy cleaning up his tent, Ismail told Al-Monitor: “Rain poured on us in the middle of the night. I did not know what to do with my children. I woke my wife up and took the kids out of the tent with some blankets and headed to the mosque nearby. ... If it weren’t for the help of neighbors, all of the furniture inside the tent would have been damaged.”
