Wind and snow caused difficulties for energy utility crews trying to repair the grid. Photo credit: Freepik.
Prague, Feb 4 (CTK) – Friday’s strong winds and heavy snowfall left almost 100,000 households in the Czech Republic without electricity yesterday morning, said energy distributors, as falling trees in many places damaged high as well as low voltage systems.
CEZ alone reported over 130 defects on high-voltage networks and some 70,000 clients without electricity.
“The situation is the most adverse in Moravia-Silesia, where 27 high-voltage defects and 15,000 households without electricity have been reported, followed by the Central Bohemia Region with 22 defects and 13,000 such households,” said CEZ spokeswoman Sona Holingerova.
Thousands of further cases were reported from the northeast and north Bohemian regions of Hradec Kralove, Usti and Liberec.
The outages were mainly due to fallen trees and branches from the strong winds and heavy snowfall, and wind and snow caused difficulties for energy utility crews trying to repair the grid.
“At many places, fallen trees are thwarting our crews’ access to the places of accidents. The crews are today often returning to the places where they intervened on Friday night already. We are trying to resume supply as quickly as possible,” Holingerova said yesterday afternoon.
The EG.D distributor, a part of the E.ON group, reported about 70 high-voltage defects and over 20,000 clients without electricity yesterday morning, mainly in the southern parts of Moravia and Bohemia.
“Since the wind continues, further defects can be expected,” said E.ON spokesman Roman Spernak.
The adverse weather also affected road and rail traffic, which was paralyzed by dozens of fallen trees. Two people needed medical treatment after a tree fell on their car on a road near Jablonne nad Orlici in the Pardubice Region early yesterday morning.
The zoological gardens in Ostrava and Liberec remained closed due to the strong wind, which damaged their equipment, and in Liberec a fallen tree fatally injured a young Przewalski horse.
Meteorologists said the wind gusts and black ice would gradually subside.
