Storm leaves 183,000 people in Lithuania without power

LRT reported Sunday, citing BNS and ELTA, that 183,000 people in Lithuania remained without electricity after a storm, while more than 90,000 customers had their supply restored. Authorities said restoring the network could take up to a week.

Energy Minister Lukas Savickas said the country had experienced a storm not seen in several decades and that specialists would need to restore thousands of network sections.

ESO chief Renatas Radvila said 260,000 customers had lost power during the storm and that 174,000 were still without electricity by Sunday afternoon. The greatest damage was reported in the Kaunas region.

More than 1,000 ESO employees were involved in restoring the network, Radvila said. More than 100 generators were delivered to municipalities on Sunday.

One person died and three were injured in the storm. Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said the situation remained tense but that the government did not plan to declare a nationwide state of emergency. Officials also said military assistance was not currently needed.

The Fire and Rescue Department said the Emergency Response Centre had received more than 24,000 calls. Firefighters received more than 1,800 reports of fallen trees and branches between Saturday and Sunday morning, including 465 reports in Kaunas County.