Widespread power outages and chaos in Eastern Europe due to snow storms

According to the Tasnim International News Group, the unusually severe start of winter has plunged Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and parts of Ukraine into snowy chaos. Electricity has been cut in more than 1000 areas. Some regions declared a state of emergency.

Four regions in Bulgaria declared a state of emergency due to heavy snowfall. The northeast of the country has been particularly affected. The Prime Minister of this country, Nikolai Denko, announced that 1,000 cities are currently without electricity. Bulgarian media reported that in Sofia, the capital of the country, electricity was cut off in the southern parts of the city due to damaged cables.

According to reports, the country’s roads have become impassable due to heavy snowfall. Broken branches blocked the roads. Passenger trains from the Black Sea city of Varna to Sofia were stopped due to damaged power lines. Important passes in the Balkan mountains were temporarily closed to traffic. Several international flights were canceled at Varna airport. The planes took off late at the Sofia airport.

This severe weather condition also caused three deaths. According to Nova Bulgaria, a homeless man froze to death in the freezing cold. He was found lifeless near garbage cans in Kazanlak, central Bulgaria. The Associated Press reported that two people died in traffic accidents and 36 were injured due to the storm.

Large parts of the Black Sea coast of Ukraine were also affected by the sudden onset of winter and were paralyzed. A snowstorm brought traffic to a standstill around the port city of Odessa. In Odessa, school lessons were switched to video conferencing on Monday. Heavy snow also caused problems inside Ukraine.

Schools and offices were closed in many parts of the Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula on Monday. In the port city of Sevastopol, a holiday was declared on Monday. Russia’s Tass news agency reported that a snowstorm in Opatoria caused widespread power outages, affecting approximately 40,000 people. Several nursing homes were evacuated.

Snowstorms and landslides also caused chaos in eastern Romania. The country’s energy minister, Sebastian Bordoja, told the Associated Press that power has been cut in more than 400 cities amid the winter weather.

He emphasized that repair crews are on the way. The red level of weather warning has been applied in the eastern regions of Constanta, Tolce, Galati and Barila, and according to the National Meteorological Organization, wind speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour are expected there.

Highway crossing near the port city of Constanta. In the Black Sea, as well as the Danube bridge near Barila, remained temporarily closed. The port of Constanta and other ports on the Romanian Black Sea stopped their operations. Part of Ukraine’s grain exports go through Romania and the country’s Black Sea ports after the Russian military blocked the normal sea route in the Black Sea with threats of violence. is placed According to the police report, a 40-year-old man left the road due to weather conditions and crashed into a tree and was killed. In a telegram, the police asked citizens to refrain from unnecessary trips.

The German Meteorological Organization also warned against frost and fresh snow and slippery conditions in some areas of the country. Many accidents have happened over the weekend in such road conditions.

Snow and slippery roads at the end of the week led to accidents with injuries in several axes across the country. In Plauen-Saxony, a 72-year-old driver was seriously injured Sunday afternoon after his car veered off the federal highway due to winter road conditions and overturned.

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