Some farms are still cut off and thousands of homes are still without power. The government is fully informed of the conditions. Damage is substantial according to the information collected so far, with over 600 buildings and almost 700 roads flooded.
Weather now calmer in Bohinj and Jezersko
Occasional snowfalls are hampering efforts to repair damaged roofs in the Bohinj and Jezersko areas. Crews are still removing fallen trees and clearing local roads. The Jezersko area was again without power this afternoon while problems with transformers and power lines were being fixed. It is believed that the Elektro Gorenjska Company has started to gradually reconnect households to the grid. The road to Jezersko re-opened for emergency vehicles yesterday, but the scale of the impact of the violent winds was only seen today. The landscape in the worst-hit area between Spodnje and Zgornje Jezersko has changed. Radio Slovenia journalist Aljana Jocif reported that, according to the estimates of experts, at least 300 cubic metres of trees had fallen on the road.
Many still without power
There are still 8,500 households without power across the country. The situation is the most severe in the Elektro Ljubljana area, but the company has announced that most of the outages will be repaired today, reports Radio Slovenia journalist Erna Strniša.
Around 700 households in the Ljubljana surroundings and over 5,000 households in the Kočevsko region are still waiting to get power. Andrej Ribič, chairman of the board of Elektro Ljubljana, says that repairs are running as planned. According to the latest information, there are 1,600 households still without power in the Koroška region. In the Maribor area, water damage restoration is underway between Podvelka and Ožbolt, where fewer than 1,000 houses remain without power. But authorities claim they will all be reconnected by this evening, if everything goes well.
Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning Irena Majcen explained at a press conference following a government session that the areas of the Civil Protection of Ljubljana and Celje were currently the most hit by the winds. She pointed out that conditions are liable to change, adding that staff at the Ministry of the Environment is following the conditions in the field, where clean-up efforts are drawing to a close and estimates of the damage are being drawn up.
‘Considering the weather forecast we can expect that the whole episode will continue until Sunday. Civil protection crews are out in force. The Environment Ministry is in a state of readiness, because even though conditions are under control today, water levels can rise again in a few days. Problems will be even more severe if it snows in low-lying areas with rain later melting the snow,’ explained the Minister.
Heavy rain forecast for the weekend
‘Water levels are rising in the middle courses of rivers – the Sava and the Ljubljanica in the Barje area. There will be no more heavy rain today or Thursday. But we are concerned about Friday when both rain and wind will intensify once again. The wind will not be as strong as it was over the last few days. Today’s snow will melt soon, but fresh snow is on its way and is due to reach us on Friday night and Saturday. The weather will be calmer from Saturday on and will be much more like winter weather,’ said meteorologist Brane Gregorčič for Radio Slovenia.
