Storm leaves more than 6,000 households without power
Thursday's storm winds had increased the number of powercuts across Estonia to more than 6,000 households by Thursday afternoon.
At 11:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, there were more than 3,500 households without power, the number had risen to 6,197 by 3:15 p.m.
According to a map of power outages available on the website of the power distribution grid operator Elektrilevi, the region that has suffered the most is Saare County, where 3,173 consumption points are without electricity.
On the neighboring island of Hiiumaa 1,531 households are without electric power, while in Harju County that includes the capital Tallinn the number of such households is 1,168.
The Estonian weather service has issued a warning of extremely strong winds for Thursday, with wind speeds in coastal areas forecast to reach up to 32 meters per second in gusts.
The storm is forecast to ease in the evening.
The storm is the result of a low pressure area moving from the northwest via Finland and clashing with warm air which had been over Estonia yesterday, was forecast, with the state weather service (Riigi ilmateenistus) issuing a severe weather warning for the north and west of the country Wednesday afternoon.
Around 60,000 households in Finland have been cut off due to the storm.
Eckerö and Viking Line have canceled most of their ferry services between Tallinn and Helsinki.
The alarm center has received 132 storm-related reports as of 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, most of them regarding trees that had fallen on the road in northern and western Estonia.
Elektrilevi operates an outages map updated in real time here.
Person injured after being hit by falling tree resulting in Tallinn
A person was injured after being hit by a falling tree, caused by strong storm winds, in Tallinn on Thursday.
At 9:32 a.m., the alarm center received a report that there was a person trapped under a tree in Tallinn city center. Rescue workers responded to the incident and the person was taken to hospital.
The chief duty officer of the Rescue Board, Janar Karner, said that Thursday has been busy for the rescuers. "While there are usually about 50 calls a day, today, rescuers have responded to 132 events related to the elimination of threats across Estonia and there have been more than 200 different rescue events in total," Karner said.
He added that it is important for people to remember the code of conduct, park cars away from trees and stay indoors if possible.
Ferry traffic on Rohukula-Heltermaa route still suspended due to storm winds
TS Laevad, which operates ferries between the mainland and Estonia's large western islands, said that ferry traffic on the Rohukula-Heltermaa route between the mainland and the island of Hiiumaa was still disrupted on Thursday afternoon due to strong storm winds.
The departures from Heltermaa at 8:30 a.m. and from Rohukula at 10 a.m. were canceled, TS Laevad said.
The ferry operator said on Thursday afternoon that the 4 p.m. departure from Rohukula is also cancelled.
The Virtsu-Kuivastu route is currently running smoothly.
Storm disrupts traffic on Estonia's small island routes
The storm winds have caused extensive disruptions in ferry services between the mainland and the country's small islands.
In the service to the Gulf of Riga small island of Ruhnu, Thursday's 4 p.m. departure of the passenger catamaran Runo from Roomassaare on Saaremaa has been postponed to noon Friday. Also the departures of the Runo from Ringsu at 7 a.m. and from Parnu at 4 p.m. on Friday have been postponed to 7 a.m. from Ringsu and to 2 p.m. from Parnu on Saturday.
In the ferry service to Manilaid, there may be changes to the departures of the ferry Kihnu Virve from Munalaid at 11:15 a.m. and from Manilaid at 12:50 p.m. on Friday.
On the Kihnu-Munalaid route Thursday's departures of the Kihnu Virve from Kihnu at 4:15 p.m. and from Munalaid at 5:45 p.m. have been canceled.
On The Soru-Triigi route between the islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, the ferry Soela did not depart from Soru on Thursday morning and there may be changes also to its departure from Triigi at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
In the Vormsi service, departures of the ferry Reet from Sviby at 5:05 p.m. and from Rohukula at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday have been canceled. On Friday there may be changes to scheduled departures from Sviby at 6:35 a.m. and from Rohukula at 7:45 a.m.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Helen Wright