Fierce winds in Poland cut power, uproot trees, damage pipeline
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
30.10.2017 10:29
Two people were killed and 12 others were injured, including five firefighters, in the wake of strong winds that battered Poland over the weekend, officials said on Monday morning.
Crews repair a pipeline at an LNG terminal damaged by strong winds in Świnoujście, northwestern Poland. Photo: PAP/Marcin Bielecki
Up to 26,000 customers were still without electricity as gales continued to ravage parts of the country, the Government Centre for Security (RCB) said.
On Sunday, firefighters nationwide were called out a total of 6,233 times, chiefly in the south of the country, as winds toppled trees and ripped roofs off buildings, according to a spokesman for the State Fire Service, Paweł Frątczak.
Winds combined with heavy rainfall have damaged the roofs of 933 buildings, including 732 residential buildings, most of them in the southern Dolnośląskie and Śląskie provinces and in the western Wielkopolskie province, according to Frątczak.
The gales have also toppled a total of 4,654 trees nationwide, Frątczak said.
Around 32,000 firefighters and 7,100 fire trucks were deployed to deal with the damage on Sunday, he added.
Strong winds caused minor damage to a pipeline at the country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the northwestern port of Świnoujście, disrupting service, but by Monday morning the terminal was up and running again, officials said.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR, PAP