Storm leaves Lithuanian residents without water, power and mobile service

Many Lithuanian municipalities were assessing damage and clearing the aftermath of a powerful weekend storm on Monday, leaving some residents without water, electricity, mobile service and heating, LRT reported, citing BNS. The Kazlų Rūda municipality declared an emergency situation.

“The situation is such that we are now dealing not only with electricity supply itself, but also with other issues related to it. More and more people are completely without communications and can only call after walking one or two kilometres from their homes or homesteads to report that they are having problems,” Kazlų Rūda Mayor Mantas Varaška told BNS on Monday.

The municipality is also facing a drinking-water crisis, while some roads are impassable and residents need food deliveries.

“Thousands of people have been without water for a second day. We must resolve this not only by restoring the operation of water facilities, but also by delivering water to more remote settlements,” Varaška said. He added that registration for water and food assistance would begin at homesteads because some residents no longer had sufficient food supplies or the ability to freeze them, while food in refrigerators was spoiling.

About 2,000 electricity customers, representing roughly 3,000 people, remained disconnected from the grid in Kazlų Rūda on Monday. According to Varaška, the Energy Distribution Operator had informed the municipality that electricity would be restored to some residents only between August 27 and 29.

The municipality has temporarily closed parks and recreation areas because fallen trees and broken branches make them dangerous.

Varaška said the municipality would ask the Ministry of National Defence for military assistance with clearing the damage and delivering food, water and medical supplies to remote homesteads and settlements that remained difficult to reach.

“Without an emergency situation, we cannot enlist statutory institutions or soldiers,” he said, adding that military representatives had taken part in a joint meeting and said they could help if authorised by their leadership.

Because mobile service has not been restored everywhere, the municipality does not know how many residents need help. “I think there may be more such reports today,” Varaška said.

Residents of the municipality have been allowed to remove dangerous or leaning trees on their own properties without written permission until September 10.

Varaška criticised the government’s decision not to declare an emergency situation at national level, saying authorities based in Vilnius did not understand the scale of the damage. He said many government members, officials, Energy Distribution Operator executives and Energy Ministry leaders lived in Vilnius, where electricity had been restored within half a day.

Anykščiai district is also considering declaring an emergency situation. Mayor Kęstutis Tubis told BNS that conditions in the surrounding area were difficult.

Nearly 10,000 electricity customers in the district were experiencing supply problems on Monday, while some mobile services were also unavailable. Tubis said there were disruptions to hot-water supplies and that some wastewater treatment plants were not operating.

“We are convening the Emergency Situations Commission, and there are indications that an emergency situation will have to be declared, because if wastewater treatment is not restored, untreated wastewater could enter the environment,” Tubis said.