Syrian refugee children look out of their tent at a refugee camp in Zahle, in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon.

BEIRUT — A storm buffeted the Middle East with blizzards, rain and strong winds on Wednesday, keeping people at home across much of the region and raising concerns for Syrian refugees facing freezing temperatures in flimsy shelters.

Snowfall and gales in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley destroyed some refugee tents. 

At least four Syrian refugees have died in Lebanon because of the storm as of Thursday.

“There’s no firewood, no diesel,” said Ali Eshtawi, a refugee from Homs who spoke by phone from a camp near the Syrian border where he said snow had caused three tents to collapse, leaving 19 people without shelter.

The storm is forecast to last several days, threatening further disruption in Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which have all been affected.

A 35-year old Syrian shepherd and an 8-year old boy with him died in the storm in the mountainous area between Lebanon and Syria, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

Snow blocked roads in the Bekaa Valley, where more than 400,000 Syrian refugees are sheltering.

“We are worried that tents will be flooded,” Lauriane Gauny, program manager in the Bekaa Valley with the aid agency Oxfam said. “Refugees who don’t have proper access to clean water or can’t store drinking water will be in severe difficulties if we don’t reach them in the next two days.”

“We are slowly dying here, no one is coming to help us and we have nothing,” Um Abdo, a Syrian refugee based in Arsal, northeast Lebanon, said. She added that she is worried about the children living with her, who may suffer from hypothermia.

Living in a makeshift tent with 11 members of her family, Abdo came over from nearby Yabroud, based in the Qalamoun mountain range, a year ago.

“We have no food, we have no bread, we have no heating oil,and we don’t know what to do,” she said, crying. “We have been forgotten about and we are going to freeze to death.”

Transport was disrupted across the region: Israeli police closed the main highways to Jerusalem intermittently, while Beirut airport was briefly closed on Tuesday night.

Damascus was carpeted with snow. There was also heavy snowfall across large parts of Turkey.

Turkish Airlines canceled dozens of flights between Turkey’s biggest cities and to several international destinations. Budget airline Pegasus also canceled some flights.

Night-time temperatures in Ankara were forecast to plunge to minus 17 degrees Centigrade and natural gas consumption spiked to record levels in Turkey as people tried to heat their homes, forcing some usually gas-fired power stations to switch to fuel oil to generate electricity, a Turkish energy official said.

Wind and rain struck the Gaza Strip, where infrastructure and thousands of homes were destroyed in a 50-day war with Israel in July and August. 

“Even nature is angry. I hope God is not angry with us. I am not scared of the storm. I am frightened for the fate of those without shelters, whose houses Israel destroyed,” said Gaza City resident Abu Ahmed, on his way to the grocery to buy fuel for a fire.

According to UN figures, 124,000 homes were damaged or destroyed during the war, and around 100,000 people remain homeless. Of those, 17,000 are sheltering in UN schools as they wait to be rehoused.

More than four months after the ceasefire, reconstruction has hardly begun in a territory ravaged by three wars in the past six years.

Wael al-Sheikh, 37, lost his home during an Israeli air strike and now lives with his two sons in a tent pitched among the ruins.

But with no access to electricity, it is impossible to fend off the cold.

Fearing that the winds would simply blow their makeshift home away, the Sheikhs have sought refuge with relatives.

Imad Mutlaq’s home was also largely destroyed in the war and the wind whistles through the cracks in the walls.

“We have no electricity or heating,” he said, describing the first night of the storm as “difficult.”

Thirty-year-old Mohammed Ziyad, father to two young sets of twins, is trying to put on a brave face.

During a previous storm, the ground floor of the building where they live flooded, but this time he said the family is well prepared.

“We have stocked up on milk and diapers in case we find ourselves stuck indoors.”

With or without a proper roof over their heads, Gazans are facing the same problem: the chronic shortage of electricity which has plagued the tiny, impoverished strip that is home to 1.8 million people.

Gaza’s sole power station, which was damaged during the war, is struggling with a severe lack of fuel and is only able to supply the enclave with six hours of power per day.