Strong north-westerly storm raged across Finland

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Trees falling on power lines cut off electricity from over 60,000 households in Southern and Central Finland in the course of Tuesday. Although most of the damaged power lines were repaired quite quickly, thousands of homes were still without electricity late last night.
     
The raging storm kept Helsinki's firemen busy. The Helsinki Emergency Response Centre received nearly 90 calls reporting fallen trees, neon signs, and cranes.
      The capital's tram traffic was cut off briefly in Hämeentie during the morning when the gale tore down the streetlights.
      During the afternoon the storm subsided in the coastal area and started heading inland and towards Eastern Finland. The storm brought down trees in South-Eastern Finland and in the Kanta-Häme, Pohjois-Karjala, and Etelä-Savo regions. The storm was also instrumental in causing some 20 car accidents.
      The strongest winds were measured at the Gulf of Finland yesterday afternoon, with gusts blowing 25 metres a second. The winds reached a speed of 17 m/s on land.
      On the Northern parts of the Baltic Sea the waves were on average between 4 to 5 meters high, however some of the waves were up to 10 metres to the crest.
      The high winds and rough seas kept all the fast Helsinki-Tallinn craft and small vessels stranded in port.
     
The storm also cut off one train track in Järvenpää, after overhead wires came down, and caused delays in the local train traffic in the Helsinki Metropolitan area yesterday afternoon.
      The repair work will continue today and there will be some minor delays in trains operating on the Kerava-Tampere and Karjaa-Salo routes.
      According to the forecasts by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, weak or moderate winds are expected all over Finland with snowfall in Eastern and Northern parts of the country.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Powerful autumn storm sweeping across Southern Finland (15.11.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat