Storm damage to Latvia’s power supply exceeds expectations

Damage caused by the storm may reach a record level, and no one was prepared for the scale of the disruptions to electricity and communications, Minister for Smart Administration and Regional Development Edgars Tavars told Latvian Television, according to LSM.

Tavars said he would propose a one-off extension of the deadline for municipalities to submit initial information to the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development on damage caused by the August 22-23 storm and heavy rains. The deadline would be extended from three to 10 working days to reduce the municipalities’ administrative burden and give them more time to address the consequences of the disaster.

The impact on municipalities is serious, but the full scale and cost of the damage can only be determined after they have assessed and reported it, Tavars said.

“The state was not prepared for an energy crisis because no one expected such damage to the Sadales tīkls and Augstsprieguma tīkls electricity networks,” Tavars said. Mobile communications towers also have limited battery capacity, which was eventually exhausted.

Tavars said the crisis had highlighted the need for generators and greater resilience for strategic infrastructure, hospitals, care centres, mobile communications towers, traffic management and railways.

He said municipalities had focused heavily on shelters since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but the vulnerability of the energy system during the storm was an important lesson.

The issue will be discussed at a crisis council meeting on Monday morning, Tavars said, adding that Latvia must not face the same situation again.

“At the moment, it was a storm, but if there is another, more serious crisis and all rescue services suddenly fail while people objectively cannot receive information, then that is a catastrophe,” he said.

Tavars said preparations had focused more on heavy rain, flooding and flooded streets. No one had been prepared for electricity and communications outages on this scale.

Emergency services, volunteers and subcontractors are working at full capacity to address the effects of the storm.

LSM reported that the storm which hit Latvia during the night of August 23 was the strongest summer storm since at least 1966, when comprehensive observations of wind gusts in Latvia began.