Storm leaves over 30,000 households without electricity

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Gusting gale- and storm-force winds have knocked down trees on power lines in Northern Karelia. At least 32,000 households have remained without electricity, reported Raimo Toivanen of the local power supplier Pohjois-Karjalan Sähkö. Moreover, in the small hours of Friday morning, up to 60,000 homes were affected by power blackouts in Eastern Finland.
      Most of the outages occurred in the eastern municipalities of Kesälahti and Kitee. However, if the storm does not get worse, all failures will be repaired by the end of the day, Toivanen assumed. It appears likely that the power can be restored to most of the homes already earlier.
     
Furthermore, the train traffic between Joensuu and Kouvola has been disrupted by trees toppled on the overhead lines and rails. During the repair work, the trains will be replaced by buses.
      According to the Finnish State Railways (VR), the repairs will take several hours, and at least four to six trains are likely to be affected.
     
During the night between Thursday and Friday, a powerful gale blew across Southern Finland, but the damage was smaller than anticipated. During the night only a few storm-related alarms were recorded by the emergency and rescue officials.
      Also across Southern and Central Finland, the strong winds have felled trees, but luckily no major disruption has occurred. The province of Southern Savo was the only exception, with fire brigades there recording over 30 reports on trees knocked down across roads.
     
In maritime areas, the high winds also raged during the night, even though the Finnish Coast Guard did not receive any reports on storm-related problems.
      On Friday, the express ferry services between Helsinki and Tallinn have been cancelled, and all Super Sea Cats and Tallink's AutoExpress vessels are staying in port.
      Also some customers of the energy suppliers Fortum and Vattenfall were left without power last night.
     
Those who have wondered at the apparently unending mild spell - during which temperatures have remained stubbornly and unseasonably above freezing night and day in southern parts of Finland - could be in for something a little more predictable at the weekend.
      The forecast is for the mercury to drop on Sunday. There is even the possibility of that ultra-rare commodity, snow. Whether this will be enough to produce a last-ditch White Christmas is quite another matter. At least for now, the Finnish Meteorological Institute is predicting temperatures will bounce back above 0°C already on Wednesday of next week.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Another storm front approaching Finland (14.12.2006)

Links:
  Finnish Meteorological Institute

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