Fierce winds batter Baltic coastline

  • 2001-11-22
  • Christel Karits
PARNU - A heavy windstorm gusting up to 30 meters per second closed ports, ripped up trees, shut down power and caused over a million dollars' worth of damage throughout the Baltic states.

Although the storm's gusts died down by Nov. 16, the effects and monetary damage remain.

In the port town of Klaipeda one woman was hospitalized for a concussion suffered during the windy weather, while another woman suffered a broken arm.

Six fisherman also had to be rescued from a grounded fishing boat after being blown aground 50 meters off the coast of Lithuania.

But in Parnu thrill seekers voluntarily braved the storm, rushing to the beach to watch the flood taking over the streets by the seashore.

Indrek Jalakas, manager of a tourist beach villa, said guests could only reach his house by swimming to it.

"Part of the tourists had to use the backdoor and then climb over the fence to get to the shop, but I am not sure they can get back the same way," he said. So many storm watchers gathered in Parnu that the police had to send traffic wardens to the beach. Periodically a car died, overcome by the wind and water, but barefoot drivers quickly jumped into the water to push the vehicles to safety.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas wasn't among the daredevils, however, as the storm prompted him to cancel his trip to the seaside resort of Neringa, which was celebrating its 40th anniversary.Lembit Vali, technical director of Eesti Energia, Estonia's state-owned power monopoly, said the damage caused by this storm was similar to that caused by the country's worst ever registered storm in 1967.

"While the summer winds caused major damage in a couple of regions, the latest storm has caused a mess across the whole country," he said.

Electric and telephone line downings in rural areas were the most serious results of the storm in the northernmost Baltic state. One-fifth of the country spent Nov. 15 and 16 without electricity, and experts expected it could take up to a week to repair all the damage.

But no Baltic country escaped unscathed.

In Parnu, winds blowing up to 20 meters per second broke trees, toppled a number of outdoor ads and grounded cargo vessel on the beach.

The storm caused 6 million kroons' ($343,000) worth of damage to the Estonian national forest reserve, mostly in the central and northeastern part of the country.

About 50,000 cubic meters of timber were broken, reported the National Forest Management Center, while almost 200 trees were downed in Tallinn.

Klaipeda was virtually closed by the windy gusts, as three tankers and two cargo ships were forced to leave the harbor to ride out the storm.

Ferry traffic along the Baltic coastline was disrupted, but most services resumed after Nov. 17.

In Latvia, a minor dam on the Daugava River broke and flooded five buildings, while minor damage to trees, power lines and roofs kept rescue services on their toes.

While Latvian ports closed to ships once the windstorm started, a wind-broken fir tree shattered windows when it landed on a train traveling from Riga to Daugavpils, but there were no injuries reported.

Much of the most expensive damage was caused by flooding - both in downtown Riga and in Parnu.

Damages to the overpowered dam may set the city back more than a few lats, although the flow of water has been temporarily stopped up with sand.

In Parnu Bay the water rose by 159 centimeters above normal, flooding a leisure park hundreds of meters from the beach before taking over the villa district.

Juri Tenson, director of the Parnu sea biology station, said it was the third flood in town this fall.

"People were rather happy when the water invaded the town, but the problem of sand movement is pretty serious," he said.

The floods destroyed beach dunes, depositing much of the sand in the nearby park.

(With additional reporting by Aleksei Gunter and BNS)