I hope everyone is doing well. I thought I should take some time to update everyone and dispel any rumors that might be circulating--in case anyone has been keeping track of international news, you might have noticed that my lovely little city of Haifa has made the front page. I still can't really believe the events of the last day and a half happened at all, especially now that I'm sitting safe and sound in my hostel room in ISTANBUL, Turkey, far away from the chaos and horror that was yesterday. Hmm..Maybe I should start from the beginning...
So yesterday morning, I woke up after only getting an hour and a half of sleep (thanks to my recent insomnia phase), for my Arabic midterm at 8 am. I was stressed, and tired, but survived my 4 hour Arabic class, and I think? I did fairly well on the midterm..even with my severe lack of sleep. I left class and returned to my dorm room, planning to take a good two hour nap before my next midterm in the afternoon. On the way home, I noticed the sky-it was all orange and FULL of smoke. It actually looked really cool..or that was my initial thought. The guard at the gate said it was just a small fire that was happening in the forest...made it sound like a large bonfire or something. We took some pictures, then I went back to my room and took a short nap.
Next thing I knew, the loudspeaker system in the dorms was blaring, and my roommate was pounding on my door. I was definitely out of sorts, and didn't realize at first what was going on. We were told that we must grab all of our valuables and any clothes that we might need for the night and to report to the bus stop IMMEDIATELY for more information. Now, this would have been chaotic anyway, BUT I had a flight to Turkey that I needed to make for the next (this) morning. So I had to pack for my five days abroad in TWO MINUTES. Everything on campus was hectic and crazy and people were rushing to evacuate as soon as possible. When I got to the bus stop-I realized in the two hours that had elapsed since I first saw the fire things had DEFINITELY changed. The sky was ENTIRELY huge billowing thick clouds of smoke, and we could see the flames leaping up in to the air all over the mountain we're so used to calling home. It was like a scene straight out of a horror movie. And as we waited for some kind of signal from the international school about what to do and where to go-we watched the fire overtake the mountain, the forest, the park, and the surrounding villages. We watched the planes diving and swooping in and out trying to get a handle on it. Even then it didn't really hit us how bad it was, we thought that maybe, after everything was under control agian, we'd be able to come back in a few hours....turns out we were wrong. way wrong.
We were re-located to a high school farther down the mountain, away from the flames and the smoke. After a couple of hours in this high school auditorium, it was decided that we would be split up and put up with host families in safer areas of Haifa for the night. We ended up with this wonderful family, and we sort of...bonded I guess would be the right word? Over the horror that was unfolding on every news channel in the country. Once we were safely away from the path of destruction, we were finally able to see just how much destruction was taking place. I'm not sure I'll ever forget the image now, forgive my choice of words, burned in to my mind of the skeleton of a bus, completely incinarated, being shown on the television. The bus was carrying about 40 people. And by people, I mean 40 kids, straight out of training, 40 prison guards, who had been sent to help evacuate the 500-person prison that was on Mount Carmel. All 40 of them burned alive. It STILL, as I said, seems to horrible to believe. The host-mother of the family we stayed at had been volunteering at the local hospital all night. Her stoires, of having to tell the families that were calling the hospital looking for people that NO, the person they were looking for was not on their list was absolutely horrifying. We stayed up way later than we should have, unable to peel our eyes away from the events unfolding. By the time we went to bed, it was common knowledge that not only was the fire not anywhere near to being done wreaking havoc or being under control, but that it had been started INTENTIONALLY. Haifa still wasn't safe, and the fire was still blazing it's path, at alarming speeds. More people were being evacuated every hour. An entire kibbutz burned to the ground.
I've never been more glad to have plans to leave Haifa. Our trip to Turkey has been planned for a couple weeks now, and there's never been a better weekend NOT to be in Haifa. When we went to catch the train this morning, the amount of smoke in the air alone was beyond frightening..not to mention the fact that we could still see the fresh smoke and the flames where it still wasnt under control.
THEN we arrived at the airport in Tel Aviv, and I've never had a more hellish experience. Since we had been forced to evacuate in no time at all before leaving, my friend and I who were traveling together, had barely ANYTHING with us-one small bag each. (we were meeting three other friends in Istanbul that had left Israel just before the fires broke out the day before) But anyway, our lack of luggage was apparently found very suspicious? Well..just for me anyway. My friend Michele made it through airport security just fine. But I was interrogated, both physically and verbally for over and hour and a half. And I now know that the Ben Gurion International Airport has these tiny little cells way in the back. They're small, and the walls are sooo dirty, and theres jsut one tiny bench there. I had to wait there for a LONG time..
FINALLY we made it to our gate just in time, and we were off. As we were gaining altitude..we looked out over Israel. And we could see Haifa, or rather, where Haifa should have been. It was covered in what i think must be the world's largest mushroom type cloud of smoke. This is probably an exaageration....but it DID look like a bomb had gone off. The amount of smoke currently covering northern Israel is frightening.
And now...like I said, I'm safe and sound and already in love with Istanbul. I can't wait to tell everyone about this trip...but I'll save that for when I return to Haifa...assuming I'll be able to by next week anyway. For now..keep Haifa in your thoughts, and I guess...all we can do is hope that everything will be under control soon. We checked the news when we got back to the hostel tonight, and it looks like things are getting worse..
If anyone wants more news of the fire, the top places to check: cnn.com, nytimes.com, jpost.com, ynet.co.il all have had major stories running since the onset of the fire. Here are some pictures we took from the Univ. before evacuating..I'll have more for my next post, including the cloud from the plane...
More updates to follow soon, I promise. I love u all.
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