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Poland battles to repair storm damage

PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk 18.08.2017 11:21
Almost 11,000 customers were still without electricity on Friday morning, firefighters said after violent storms battered Poland last weekend.
Storm damage in Rytel, northern Poland. Photo: PAP/Leszek SzymańskiStorm damage in Rytel, northern Poland. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański

The gales killed six people and injured 54 others, including 15 firefighters, damaged some 4,400 buildings, including over 3,000 residential buildings, and wreaked havoc in forests in Poland's north and west on Friday night and Saturday morning.

More than 80,000 firefighters were called out a total of almost 23,000 times, according to fire brigade spokesman Paweł Frątczak.

As part of the clean-up effort, troops and military equipment, including trucks, amphibious watercraft and heavy-duty engineering equipment, were used to help residents in the village of Rytel, in the northern Pomorskie province, where thousands of trees knocked down by fierce winds blocked the flow of water in the Brda River, posing a flood risk.

Poland’s interior minister has announced a new regional warning system using television, the internet and mobile phones.

Konrad Tomaszewski, Director General of State Forests, said earlier this week: "We are dealing with undoubtedly the greatest disaster in the history of Polish forestry -- and I suspect in the history of European forestry.”

Clearing up damage to forests caused by the storms will take until 2019, another official said on Wednesday.

(pk)

Source: PAP

tags: storms
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