But Who’s Counting?

July 23, 2006 - 6:46 PM by Allison

Carmia is keeping a faithful account today of every warning siren and every “boom” she hears from her apartment in Haifa. In between, she’s having trouble getting
even basic things accomplished — like mopping the floor or taking a shower.

The First Siren of the Day

I was just woken again by the first siren of the day. Before I expressed that I stopped bothering to run into the hallway, but that isn’t true anymore. After I saw more Haifa houses being damaged on TV, I realized that I should do what I can, even if it’s minimal. If my house is hit, we’re in big trouble. We don’t have a “protected room” (mamad) and not enough time to run to the bomb shelter downstairs. The reason few people were killed from direct hits on their homes is because they weren’t inside of them – they were either inside bomb shelters, had left the city, or were elsewhere. The sirens gave us a pretty good warning. Then the booms started – loud ones, and many of them. I’ve stopped bothering to count, because it doesn’t really make a difference. We’ve starting saying “a lot of katyushot” or “just a few katyushot”.

An Hour Later, a Second Siren Sounds

I’m in the hallway, listening to the second siren of the day in Haifa. The siren is pretty long – that’s good, it means people have adequate warning time to head into safety – either in a bomb shelter or in their “protected room”.
We heard only one boom now and it appears to be over. We’ll stay here for another bit just to make sure there, and then we’ll go back to the living room to check the room.

A note on the “protected room,” or mamad as it’s called in Hebrew: every new home in Israel must have one of these. It has thicker walls; the windows must open with hinges and have a heavy metal cover so the glass doesn’t explode. The room’s door is usually made out of thick metal with rubber lining so that it can be made resistant to chemical gasses. Apartments in older buildings, like ours, do not have a mamad. We’re expected to go to the local bomb shelter when the air raid warning sirens come on.

Third Siren of the Day

Avinoam and I are in the hallway again – the third siren of the day in Haifa. The siren has finished sounding but we haven’t heard any booms yet. It may have been a false alarm.

Fourth Siren

Just a couple of minutes after we experienced the third alarm, we’re here in the hallway listening to the fourth one. Avinoam heard an explosion but it seemed to be far away; I didn’t hear anything. I’m busy writing and our TV is blasting in the background.
I was in the middle of doing “sponja” – mopping the floors – when the alarm came on. Since we’re stuck here the whole day, I guess it might as well be clean!

Fifth Alarm

I just finished mopping the entire house and had worked up a sweat when the sirens came on again. Seems to be a false alarm. Maybe something fell in Carmiel, Tzfat (Safed), or Nahariyah. I really want to take a shower now but I’m afraid to get caught there by an alarm. The bathroom faces the north so it’s the most dangerous area in the house. But it’s 31 degrees in Haifa today and it’s hot in my house (most homes in Israel don’t have central air conditioning).

A Boom Without a Siren — and then, Number Six

We heard a boom a few minutes ago, but there was no warning siren. On the news, nothing has been updated. A friend who heard it as well already called though and it appears to have been another katyusha landing…

Update: The sirens have just come on. Thanks! I wish they put them on BEFORE the katyushot start falling. Okay, we’re back to counting booms – 1, 2, the sirens are still wailing. Okay, they’ve stopped. We’ll wait a bit though, before we head back to the living room.

The seventh siren, and the eighth and ninth.

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