Dead and damage in the aftermath of storm

The powerful storm that hit western Romania on Sunday night has left dead, wounded and lots of material damage

Roxana Vasile, 18.09.2017, 13:14

A storm that hit Romania on Sunday evening had the devastating effects of a hurricane. In less than 20 minutes, the storm killed eight people, wounded 140 and caused several material damage. The power of the storm was unprecedented in Romania and wreaked havoc in 15 counties in the west, center and north. In more than 200 localities, strong gusts of more than 120 km per hour uprooted, broke and felled down hundreds of trees and electricity poles, tore apart roofs and street billboards and turned vehicles upside down. Also, in many places electricity and water supplies were cut off and some roads were blocked.

The railway in the area was also damaged, and many trains were delayed or even cancelled. Many people were taken by surprise by the storm, as they were just enjoying the last day of the weekend in the open air. Some 1,000 firefighters intervened to support the people in need. The most affected was the county of Timis, in the west, where many people did not sleep all night, trying to reduce some of the damage caused by the storm. As a safety measure, classes were suspended on Monday in 40 schools in Timis, Arad, Bihor and Cluj.

“The storm that hit Romania on Sunday, with an unprecedented violence, has revealed the weaknesses and lack of efficiency of the population prevention and disaster management systems” said Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis, in a communiqué. Sending his condolences to the victims’ families, the head of state has stressed the fact that protecting citizens’ lives and prevention in extreme situations must be some of the Government’s top priorities.

Klaus Iohannis has called on the Executive to explain whether all procedures in place were observed or not and, if proven so, who should be held accountable for negligence or incompetence. “We must know for sure if weather notifications had been sent in due time and in keeping with the scale of the natural phenomena that were to occur” the president also said. The president has also urged the Government to take urgent measures to implement a rapid notification system for the population, as well as to improve the integrated management system of crisis situations.

Speaking on Radio Romania, the Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose mentioned an application that would notify people in case of emergency: “Nobody on this planet can take any physical measure against a storm or a blizzard. What is going to be a top priority as of today is to establish a functional warning system. I’ve talked about it with specialists in the field, and all those who are in the areas where such dangerous phenomena might occur, could be warned on their phones, with the help of the mobile telephony networks. Also, I believe that the role of the public radio is essential in this respect.”

Besides learning what to do in case such weather phenomena occur at national level, Romanian politicians should also pay attention to the bigger picture. Storms like the one that hit Romania on Sunday are the effect of climate change at global level. Therefore, it’s time, and many have stressed that in Bucharest, that politicians decided what kind of development they are interested in: to maintain the level of pollution as it is today, or to reach an agreement in order to reduce the carbon footprint.