Storms leave thousands without electricity
Electric utility comes under heavy criticism for inadequate information
Thousands of people in different parts of Finland were still without electricity Sunday evening in the aftermath of last week’s heavy storms which toppled trees and brought down power lines mainly in the south and west of the country on December 26th and 27th.
The situation was worst in the Salo region in the southwest. There were also problems in electricity distribution on Sunday in Espoo and Kirkkonummi in the south, as well as the Ostrobothnia region.
Up to 200,000 homes were affected by blackouts in the wake of the storms over the Christmas holidays. Buildings, particularly those with sheet-metal roofs, were also damaged in the storm-force winds, which gusted over 30 metres a second and prompted widespread alerts and instructions by police for people to remain in their homes for their own safety.
The westerly gales also raised water levels in the Gulf of Finland and caused some coastal flooding.
The energy utility Fortum had hundreds of people busy fixing the damage during the weekend, and more are being deployed this week to clear up the aftermath.
“The repair work has lasted longer with us than with other distributors because the terrain is very difficult”, says Timo Jutila, head of customer relations at Fortum.
Power was restored to the Siikajärvi district of Espoo five days after it was knocked out in heavy winds on Monday last week.
Fortum came under criticism for poor communications in the aftermath of the storm.
On Thursday Minister of Economic Affairs Jyri Häkämies (Nat. Coalition Party) called on electric utilities to make better preparations for storms.
At a government press conference he said that efforts should be made to speed up the process of putting power lines underground, where they would not be susceptible to the effects of storms and falling trees.
See also:
Report confirms that storms in summer 2010 caused unprecedented havoc (4.10.2011)
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 2.1.2012 - TODAY |
Storms leave thousands without electricity
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