“Of course, it’s easiest to shout and complain about something on Facebook, but I want to thank the services. The people with and without flashing lights who worked on the roads during the storm in the south of Lithuania.
Countless fallen trees. Everything is being managed or will soon be managed. Simply – you are super,” Marijonas wrote on Facebook on Saturday evening.
The aftermath of the storm – the largest in two decades
Firefighters and rescuers have already received more than 1,200 calls on Saturday due to the storm’s consequences, according to the Fire Protection and Rescue Department (PAGD), and this number is still growing.
“Based on the number of fire and rescue force calls, it can be said that the consequences of this storm will be among the largest in the past two decades,” the service stated in a post on the social network Facebook.
Most calls were registered in the Kaunas (323), Vilnius (204), Alytus (188), Utena (110), Marijampolė (98), and Klaipėda (95) counties.
It is reported that firefighters and rescuers have been removing fallen trees from roads, buildings, cars, and electrical infrastructure throughout Saturday. Trees fell on cars 69 times, on buildings 62 times, and on power poles 29 times.
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“For comparison – from the beginning of this year until mid-August, firefighters responded 1,231 times to remove the effects of strong winds. Today this number was exceeded in one day,” PAGD states.
The Emergency Response Center also received the highest call volume this year. From 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., 11,460 reports were recorded, most of which were related to the storm’s consequences.
In the morning, most calls were due to incidents in southern Lithuania, later in the central part of the country, and in the afternoon most reports came from western Lithuania.
As BNS reported, in the Anykščiai district on Saturday evening, a fallen tree fatally injured a man.
More than 250,000 people without electricity
According to the latest data from the Energy Distribution Operator (ESO), electricity supply is disrupted for 256,000 customers.
Most outages were recorded in the Kaunas region – more than 67,000, Utena region – over 60,000 customers. In the Vilnius region, electricity supply is disrupted for 39,000 customers, in the Panevėžys region – 26,000, and in the Alytus and Klaipėda regions – more than 23,000.
In total, the network was damaged in more than 3,000 locations.
ESO representative Rasa Juodkienė assures that the network is heavily damaged, work is hindered by the ongoing storm and blocked access.
“Most damage was done to 110 kV voltage overhead power lines, on which a large number of customers depend. Also, when medium voltage lines are damaged, temporary electricity supply cannot always be ensured with the generators ESO has, which are used by operational brigades,” she notes.
“Considering the damage caused by this storm to the network, repair work will take time,” the representative says.
Strong wind in Vilnius overturns fences and breaks trees
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Strongest wind gusts – on the coast
Due to power supply disruptions caused by poor weather conditions, some train delays are also possible.
According to the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service, based on preliminary data, the strongest wind gusts were recorded at Ventė Cape and Nida by the sea.
Here, a hurricane-strength wind gust reaching up to 33 meters per second was recorded.
Strong wind was also recorded in the Klaipėda port, Šilutė, Kaunas, Kybartai, Lazdijai, and Šventoji.
Meanwhile, a torrential rain was recorded at the Šilutė meteorological station. According to the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service, 83% of the August monthly precipitation norm fell there since morning.
The torrential rain limit was also reached in Šiauliai.
Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service meteorologist Janas Vaitkevičius told LRT that Saturday’s storm is the strongest recorded storm this summer.
