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Women carrying water jars, mat00063 Women with water jars, early 1900s

“Water is generally brought from the fountain, or cistern, in skin bottles, which the women carry on their backs, and a rope holding this in position passes round the forehead. If, however, they have no skin bottles, known as ‘kirby,’ they have big earthenware jars, which they carry on their heads.”  –Philip Baldensperger, “Women in the East,” Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement (1900): 173.

“A great part of their lives seems to be spent in going to and fro between the tent and the spring.” –C. R. Conder, Tent Work in Palestine (1878) 2: 284.

The photo and quotations are taken from the Traditional Life and Customs volume of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection (Library of Congress, LC-matpc-00063).

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From the Jerusalem Post:

Many roads in the South were closed down following floods and a storm which has been raging since Sunday night.
Four tourists became trapped in their car in Arava Monday due to intense flooding.
Rescue units, including a helicopter, were working to evacuate them from the vehicle.
Route 90, leading from the Dead Sea hotels to the Center, Route 40 and Route 211 in the Negev were closed for traffic. The Nitzana Bridge collapsed due to heavy rainfalls.
The Nitzana, Tzin, Revivim Besor Haroe’h and Beersheba streams were overflowing.
A vehicle drifted away near the Revivim quarry and was still being sought on Monday morning. Two trucks with three travelers were swept into the Paran stream near Eilat and the travelers needed assistance from the local rescue unit and IDF helicopters.
All schools in the Ramat Hanegev Local Council were closed because of the floods. Schools in Kadesh Barne’a, Ezuz, Kmehin, Nitzana, Revivim, Mashabe Sadeh, Telalim and Retamim were closed.
Significant downpours swept the land, especially in the Negev and northern Negev, where 49 millimeters were registered during the night.

This reminds one of Psalm 126:4: “Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev.”

UPDATE: Arutz-7 reports:

One tourist was killed in the Arava area north of Eilat Monday morning when he and two friends tried to drive their jeep through a raging river bed, powered by rare heavy rainfall. The roaring stream crushed the vehicle against rocks, and army helicopters manage to rescue two accompanying tourists. It was not known if they are from Israel or from outside the country.
Earlier on Monday, IDF helicopter rescue crews saved three people trapped in two trucks in flash floods in the central Negev and others near Eilat as the torrential but badly needed winter rains head north.
More than one inch of rain fell in Eilat, more than the normal rainfall for several years, and schools were closed throughout the region. Eilat also suffered electricity blackouts….
Nearly two inches of rain flooded Be’er Sheva, where a raging river bed was filled with water for the first time in years.

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