Rehovot resident tragedy: Police probe whether hikers had adequate warning of flash flood

Survivors deny ignoring several warnings from park rangers

All four of the rappelers - Tal Alon, 24, from Moshav Mei-Ami; Dror Koren, 23, from Herzliya; Noa Shapira, 23, from Kfar Saba and Amit Gottleib, 23, from Rehovot - were buried Sunday, less than 24 hours after horrified park rangers, friends and bystanders saw the four swept away by a powerful surge of muddy water rushing down Nahal Qumran.

At one point, when the group realized that they were trapped in the canyon, Koren called his older brother, Yaron, a firefighter, to tell him that they were in need of rescue. Yaron contacted another firefighter whose brother was also on the trip, and they and two co-workers set out to try to rescue the climbers - but to no avail.

Source: Rebecca Anna Stoil. Police probe whether hikers had adequate warning of flash flood. Survivors deny ignoring several warnings from park rangers. JPost.com (14 May 2007) [FullText]