Gilani People Still Besieged by Snow; Officials Admit Lack of Preparedness

Five days after heavy snowfall in Gilan Province, residents are trapped in problems caused by power and water outages and blocked communication routes. The Governor of Gilan stated that the level of preparedness was insufficient. The finger of blame points toward crisis management.

Gilan Province has been snow-covered for five days, with snow depth exceeding one meter in some urban areas and more than two meters in suburban and rural areas. The Gilan Meteorological Department had issued a notice one day before the snowfall about the arrival of a cold and precipitation system that would result in snowfall of up to 80 centimeters. The department had also requested the Crisis Management Headquarters to “adopt necessary measures and make provisions to deal with any possible crisis.”

Gilan Governor: Preparedness Was Insufficient

MohammadBaqer Nobakht, Vice President of Iran, during a visit to Gilan, stated that the snowfall in the province was “somewhat more” than the meteorological organization’s predictions. However, this “somewhat more” coincided precisely with the 57th anniversary celebration of the revolution, paralyzing daily life throughout Gilan Province.

The executive agencies and crisis management in Gilan Province were not very successful in providing assistance, rescue, and relief operations. Arslan Zaree, Governor of Gilan, stated that despite all efforts by rescue and crisis management personnel, preparedness for this crisis was insufficient.

The situation today, Thursday, the 24th of Bahman (February 13), in Gilan Province has not changed significantly from previous days. Electricity to approximately 206,000 households in some parts of Gilan remains cut off. Access by residents in cities to drinking water is impossible due to the disruption and destruction of main water supply lines. Seven thousand and 600 rural households also lack access to drinking water.

Zaree, Governor of Gilan, in an interview with Iran’s state radio and television center in Gilan, stated that rainfall and snowfall in the province was 27 times the national average and said that this critical situation has disrupted 85 percent of power lines and networks.

Lahijan, Someh Sara, Rudbar, Astaneh, Fomen, Rudsar, and Langarud are among the cities that, according to reports, “have been most severely affected by heavy snow and life has become unbearable.”

Human Toll of Snow

The problem in Gilan Province is not just traffic flow in cities and access to public necessities. So far, seven people in the cities of Rudbar and Rasht have lost their lives due to falls from heights or snow avalanches. According to the Governor of Gilan, 78 people have also been injured due to trauma from falls.

According to IRNA, three missing people from a snow avalanche in Rashteh Rod, Rudbar, were found by Red Crescent rescue workers. Among these three people, an elderly woman was alive and was transferred to the hospital. However, a young woman and her child died in this accident, and their bodies were removed from the snow.

Traffic on Roads; Difficult and Slippery

Conditions for passage on main roads within Gilan Province continue to be reported as “difficult and slippery.” Latest reports show that three days after the heavy snowfall, only “35 percent of rural roads have been reopened.” ISNA reported that officials promised this percentage would reach 55 percent by the end of today, Thursday.

Reopening Rural Roads; Second Priority

The extent of roads in Gilan Province is 10,000 kilometers, and according to Mohammad Reza Nazak-kar, Director General of Gilan Roads, due to limited resources and insufficient manpower, reopening routes during a crisis is prioritized.

According to him, the first priority is reopening main roads and arteries, and for rural roads, local resources should be used.

Nobakht, Vice President of the Republic, claiming that the Crisis Management Organization is prepared to resolve problems, said that “the reason for 70 percent blockade of communication routes” in the suburbs of Rasht is the high volume of vehicles entering from Qazvin to Rasht and the lack of winter equipment. Stating that “almost all secondary roads in Gilan Province are under snow,” he announced the reopening of “most” of them by the end of today, Thursday.

On Foot to Rasht

Over the past twenty-four hours, nearly 1,350 passengers on the Emamzadeh Hashem road to Rasht were besieged by snow and freezing. Many of them, unable to be rescued by road rescue and relief personnel, chose to walk 30 kilometers to Rasht on foot from early Wednesday morning and save themselves. Some of these people have posted videos about this in cyberspace. Meanwhile, 500 passengers remaining on the road have been provided emergency accommodation.

Snow, Newspapers, and Politics

Heavy snowfall in Gilan Province became an occasion for some media outlets in Iran to use “officials being caught off guard by predictable events” as the subject of notes and reports.

Conservative media such as Javan and Vatan Emrouz did not consider surprising officials in Rouhani’s government as a new matter. Vatan Emrouz, with a headline “Prudence Under Snow,” took strong positions against the government’s unpreparedness during predictable crises.

In contrast, Iranian newspapers Iran, Ebtekaar, Ettelaat, and even Kayhan published reports about the critical conditions in Gilan and relief efforts, at least on their front pages.

Some media outlets such as Sazandegi, Ettemad, and Shargh made no mention of heavy snowfall on their front pages.

Some newspapers looked at the snowfall from another angle. Majid Rezaeian, a journalist at Arman Melli newspaper, while referring to the necessity of information dissemination during a crisis, deemed it unwise to limit journalists’ access to correct and official sources of information and said that field reporting by journalists helps the relief process.

Aftab Yazd also wrote in a note about how one can criticize crisis management when the meteorological organization does not specifically say what will happen in which areas and what crisis the crisis management should prepare for.

Snowfall ended today in most parts of Gilan while people are looking for ways to cope with freezing and access to their necessities.

Source: DW