Thousands of households still without power in Estonia

Snow and blizzard conditions the night before Sunday brought power outages to many areas across Estonia, leaving more than 17,000 households without electricity as of 8 a.m., Elektrilevi CEO Mihkel Härm said. By 5 p.m., around 9,000 outages remained. Road and rail conditions remain difficult in parts.
The head of the distribution network operator said on the "Vikerhommik" radio program that while the situation on Saturday morning offered some relief after an uneventful night, conditions worsened considerably overnight, leading to widespread disruptions.
"The most difficult situation is in Tartu County, but also in the Viru and Jõgeva counties. It's likely that the last customers in those areas will have their electricity restored by Wednesday," Härm said. "East Harju County has also been more affected by the heavy snow and we expect the final households there to get power back on Tuesday."
Härm noted that power outages increased in the morning hours on Sunday, particularly in the Viru and East Harju regions. The primary cause is the continuing snowfall in some areas of Estonia, which makes trees heavier, causing them to fall on power lines. According to Härm, Elektrilevi crews have been working through the night and are now being relieved by daytime teams.
"We can't deploy repair crews from one area to another too easily, since outages are occurring across the country," Härm said. He added that as power is restored in some locations, crews will be reassigned to assist in other areas.
Around 5 p.m., Elektrilevi reported that around 9,000 households were still without electricity.
"Our top priority is restoring power to first-level critical facilities, such as hospitals, care homes, schools and kindergartens," Härm said.

Viktor Saaremets, duty officer at the Rescue Board, said that over the past 24 hours, they have responded to about 140 emergency calls. Of those, more than 100 incidents involved trees that had fallen due to the weight of snow and wind, blocking roads.
"There have also been cases where trees have fallen on power lines, lighting poles and even vehicles. Fallen trees have been the main cause of our emergency calls. In the past 24 hours, there have been 11 traffic accidents requiring rescue services, but it seems that many people have wisely decided to avoid driving in these conditions," Saaremets said.
The head of the Transport Administration's Traffic Management Center, Siim Vaikmaa, said after midday that road conditions remain challenging in Lääne-Viru and Ida-Viru counties. Strong crosswinds are causing problems along the northern coast and some roads are also icy in places.
"There have been several cases of vehicles veering off the road on the Tallinn-Narva highway, particularly between Sämi and Jõhvi. The situation is also still difficult in Tartu County and southeastern Estonia, where it continues to snow," Vaikmaa noted.
According to Vaikmaa, conditions in northern and western Estonia have already improved, with clear winter weather, sunshine and mostly clean tracks on main roads. However, he cautioned that drivers should still remain careful, as both air and road temperatures have dropped several degrees compared to Saturday, and icy sections can still be encountered even on major highways.
The forecast indicates that snowfall in Lääne-Viru, Ida-Viru and Tartu counties should end and conditions are expected to improve. However, Vaikmaa advised postponing travel in these areas if possible.
Passenger train operator Elron announced that due to severe weather conditions, delays are affecting train services on eastern, southern and southwestern routes and these disruptions could continue throughout the day.
"Because of overnight snowdrifts, switches were blocked in Vägeva, Jõhvi and Kohila," said Elron's communications manager, Kristo Mäe. "The difficult road conditions caused train services between Tallinn and Tartu/Koidula/Valga, Tallinn and Narva, and Tallinn and Rapla/Türi/Viljandi to either be suspended or severely disrupted."
Repair crews from Estonian Railways and Edelaraudtee have been working throughout the morning to fix infrastructure issues caused by the harsh weather.
"Traffic has now been restored, but trains are running with significant delays and there may be major changes to departure and arrival times," Mäe added, advising passengers to check Elron's website for updates on delays.
According to the Estonian Weather Service, snowfall will continue throughout Sunday. Special attention should be paid to road conditions in southern, eastern and northern Estonia, particularly areas north of Paide and Viljandi. These areas could see an additional 20 centimeters of snow during the day. Saaremets warned that, as temperatures have dropped below freezing, the wet, frozen snow could cause more damage to power lines.

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Editor: Karin Koppel, Marcus Turovski