Fire and Rescue Service still receiving calls to deal with storm damage

RIGA - The State Fire and Rescue Service (VUGD) is still receiving calls related to the damage caused by last weekend’s storm in Latvia, the VUGD informed LETA on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday morning, 3,347 reports related to damage caused by strong winds had been received via the 112 hotline.

Although the number of new calls has decreased significantly, a smaller number of calls continued to come in over the past 24 hours from all regions of Latvia. Over the past 24 hours, another 267 reports were received, mainly from Riga, where the number of callouts increased by 140, and in the Riga region, where the number of callouts rose by 58. Over the past 24 hours, another 34 calls were received in Zemgale; 19 in Latgale; 12 in Vidzeme; and four in Kurzeme.

Overall, the highest number of calls over storm damage was received in Riga (1,164) and in the Riga region (860), including 243 in Jurmala. Also, 496 calls were received in the Latgale region, of which 165 were in Daugavpils and 78 in Augsdaugava Municipality. In Zemgale, 450 calls were registered, including 107 in Jelgava and Jelgava Municipality and 95 in Jekabpils Municipality. Meanwhile, 203 calls were received in the Kurzeme region and 174 in the Vidzeme region.

Even though the stormy wind has subsided, the VUGD urges people to remain cautious, as trees may still have broken branches or damaged trunks that could fall unexpectedly. The VUGD urges people to stay away from damaged or leaning trees, broken branches, as well as damaged or fallen power lines.

As reported, on Saturday, August 22, and the following night, Latvia was hit by the strongest summer storm in decades, with wind speeds exceeding 30 meters per second in some areas. The storm caused extensive damage to both the distribution and transmission power grids, initially cutting off power to approximately 277,000 customers in Latvia. On Monday morning, power outages were still affecting approximately 87,000 customers throughout Latvia.