Last winter inclement weather swept through Lebanon starting on February 2019, with the peak of heavy rain, thunderstorms, strong winds and flooding hitting different Lebanese areas. Refugees were impacted by back to back extreme weather conditions. During the first storm, refugees struggled to cope with heavy snow, torrential rain and gusting winds that flooded sites and damaged shelters. This situation was compounded by a second storm, bringing new precipitations, snow and low temperatures. This added to the already saturated lands, rivers and streams causing more floods and displacement of refugees and impacting vulnerable Lebanese. Also, tragically, four refugees, of which three are children, perished as a result of the storms.
As an act of storm preparedness and mitigation measures, URDA’s winterization strategy is focused on saving lives and ensuring minimum standards in elevated areas in Lebanon for refugees and the most vulnerable Lebanese. In the absence of existing permanent shelter options for refugees, URDA provides winterization projects in informal shelter sites to ensure that they are provided blankets, mattresses, weather proofing kits, household goods, clothes, hygiene kits, baby kits, food parcels, fuel, and other protection-related non-food items NFI distributed according to selection criteria of the most vulnerable persons of concern.