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.