/ world today news/ The disastrous situation in the country continues for the third day after the heavy snowfall, in some areas it continues to rain.
The situation is most critical in southern Bulgaria, where thousands are still without electricity. In Rudozem, Madan and in many of the villages, apart from electricity, there is no bread. People continue to suffer, telecommunications, road infrastructure are disrupted, rivers are rising, trees have fallen in many places, which have closed even major roads. In southern Bulgaria, even cars are covered by snow, which reaches 1 meter and 50 cm.
The dire situation remains in Smolyan, Kardzhali, Lucky, Velingrad and Sarnitsa. According to a decision of the crisis headquarters of the fire department, it was ordered to check whether there are people in distress in the huts and whether the roads to them are passable.
This was stated by the resigned Interior Minister Veselin Vuchkov for an extraordinary meeting of the crisis headquarters in connection with the critical situation in the country after the intense snowfall. There are no citizens at risk at this time. Over 850 settlements continue to be without electricity, this is the most serious problem, Vuchkov stressed.
In the affected areas, 7 ambulances, 51 buses and cars were withdrawn, 7 citizens were transported for hemodialysis, and 5 pregnant women were transported. The affected areas are Pazardzhik, Smolyan, Asenovgrad, Lucky and others, Vuchkov reported.
He called on citizens to rethink the need to travel. Tourists should avoid avalanche-dangerous areas, skiers and snowboarders should not go down unprotected and untreated areas and slopes. An organization has been created to deliver food, water and medicines to hard-to-reach settlements with high-passable machines, added Vuchkov. The main priority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs remains the assistance of the Energy System Operator and the ERPs for the elimination of accidents on transmission lines, this is an over-priority that will probably not be resolved quickly.
Chief Commissioner Nikolay Nikolov said, for his part, that today the Air Force will be involved with helicopters to monitor the transmission lines in order to locate the places of the accidents.
Smolyan is also without electricity this morning, as well as over 100 villages in the region, for which this is the third day without electricity. The main road in the city has been cleared, but there is no access to the streets. There is also no access to the administrative buildings in the city. A few volunteers joined in the cleaning. The road Devin – Krichim is closed. Travelers are redirected via the direction Smolyan – Plovdiv. The Prevala pass is also closed. There is a risk of landslides and falling trees throughout the area.
Schools in Smolyan and Kardzhali districts remain closed on Monday and Tuesday. The third-class road network in both areas is closed. The movement of cargo trucks is also not allowed in Smolyansko.
The state of emergency remains in force in Kardzhali region. Electricity has been restored in some of the settlements, but more than 200 settlements are still without electricity. The reason is the many poles damaged by the heavy snow, which are more than 40 in the area. Difficult access to them further hinders the work of emergency teams. There are still disruptions to telephone and mobile connections. The main roads of the republic network are being cleaned, but traffic on them is very difficult. Since last night, 7 rotary snow plows, which arrived from the interior of the country, have been working in the main directions. Today and tomorrow a wooden vacation has been announced in the entire region, there will be classes only in the city of Kardzhali. All rivers have raised their level, the “Studen Kladenets” dam is being released in a controlled manner, and the Kardzhali dam still has free volume.
The situation in the Haskovo region is slowly returning to normal after the snowfall. The Haskovo-Kardzhali road is now open. Traffic restrictions on the Harmanli-Topolovgrad and Dimitrovgrad-Stara Zagora roads are lifted. However, the Ivaylovgrad-Krumovgrad road is impassable. The power supply to the pumping stations supplying water to Dimitrovgrad and five districts of Haskovo has been restored. 15 pumping stations are still not working and dozens of villages from the municipalities of Harmanli, Mineralni Bani and Stambolovo are without water. 90 settlements in the region are without electricity. There will be no classes in two schools from Madzharovska municipality today, due to uncleared roads to the villages.
Today it will continue to snow, but now less, in Western Bulgaria it will rain and snow.
Tundzha will reach the red warning threshold near Elhovo later today, the Ministry of Environment and Water warned. The river level will remain high for the next three days. The Sazliyka River, which broke the dyke in Galabovo, will begin to gradually lower, as will the Maritsa near Harmanli and Svilengrad.
Traffic is temporarily restricted at km 52 of the “Trakia” highway in the emergency and active lane, in the direction of Plovdiv, for the removal of a fallen tree. Road III-868 Smolyan – Rudozem and road III-8681 Rudozem – Smilyan are temporarily closed to traffic, for cleaning of fallen trees. Freight vehicles to move without trailers and semi-trailers on road I-5 Haskovo – Kardzhali. Road ІІІ-507 Manastir – Knizhovnik – Most – Kardzhali is open for traffic of goods vehicles. Road III-866 Devin – Krichim, at km 66, between Devin and Mikhalkovo, is temporarily closed to traffic due to a fallen rock mass.
#Thousands #suffering #electricity #bread #water
