According to the mayor of Vilnius district, Robertas Duchnevičius, the greatest damage is recorded in the Avižieniai and Riešė elderships.
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The traffic on the viaduct will remain closed
Vytautas Vansavičius, director of the Vilnius district municipality administration, told 15min that the biggest problems are currently recorded in Bukiškis.
V. Vansavičius, who drove around Bukiškis and assessed the storm damage together with the elder, claims that the situation with the flooded Avižieniai-Bukiškis viaduct is very problematic.
“There has never been such a bad situation with this viaduct. It is completely submerged. We contacted ‘Road Maintenance’, they are sending crews to pump out the excess water, but it is hard to say how long it will take. The plan is to manage to pump it out by midnight, but I myself would doubt that.
It may be that traffic on this viaduct will still be difficult on Monday morning, then we will call to regulate traffic, because there are very large traffic jams in this place,” V. Vansavičius told 15min.
AB “Road Maintenance” states on its Facebook page that since Saturday around 11 p.m., continuous work has been carried out on the Bukiškis viaduct in Vilnius district, Avižieniai, where a large amount of surface water has accumulated due to very heavy rainfall.
“In order to remove the storm damage as quickly as possible, intensive water removal works are currently underway, using high-capacity water pumps. Due to the large amount of accumulated water, traffic under the Bukiškis viaduct remains closed.
During intense rains, a large amount of water can accumulate in certain places in a very short time, so even after the precipitation ends, the removal work may continue longer – until safe traffic conditions are restored,” states “Road Maintenance”.
Flooded school premises
Vytautas Vansavičius, director of the Vilnius district municipality administration, told 15min that the storm that caused great damage also affected the Bukiškis primary school, which is currently being renovated.
Photos taken by a 15min photographer show that the roof was damaged by a fallen tree.
“Yes, a tree fell, the roof was damaged, but this is the least of the problems. The school basement rooms, where classrooms and a laboratory are located, are flooded. There is still water there.
All the furniture is overturned, classrooms are damaged, the situation is really very bad. And the school is being renovated this summer,” V. Vansavičius told 15min about the situation in Bukiškis.
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The strong wind also knocked down and broke the trees in the Bukiškis fairy tale park around the school.
According to V. Vansavičius, trees or their branches are still scattered on district roads, but the situation is gradually improving, and services are working to clear the roadway.
On Sunday morning, 15min photographer Robertas Riabovas, who drove around Bukiškis, captured several fallen trees in photos, with many broken branches scattered on the roads.
Driving deeper into Bukiškis, there are even more fallen trees.
Residents also share images in Facebook groups showing streets covered with tree branches, and huge trees broken or uprooted.
Almost 35 mm of rain fell in Vilnius district
Due to the storm that occurred last night in Eastern Lithuania, firefighters responded 37 times to remove fallen trees, mostly in Vilnius County.
“Most of the problems were in Vilnius County (…), where we had as many as 27 calls. In other regions, there were slightly fewer: two in Klaipėda County, five in Alytus, one in Telšiai, and two incidents recorded in Utena,” Giedrius Vaičiulis, a specialist at the Fire Protection and Rescue Department (PAGD), told LRT radio on Sunday.
According to him, in 34 cases firefighters removed trees fallen onto the road carriageway, twice onto power lines, and once onto a building.
According to the “Energy Distribution Operator” (ESO) outage map data, about 5.4 thousand residents currently have no electricity in the country due to disruptions.
Meteorologist Elena Kliukina told the broadcaster that almost 35 mm of rain fell in Vilnius district, nearly 27 mm in Varėna district, and it also rained heavily in Švenčionys, Šeduva, Biržai, and Pakruojis.
“Eastern Lithuania received the most rain and, of course, the rain was accompanied by thunderstorms, with wind gusts in some places,” E. Kliukina said.
