Balkans snowstorm leaves tens of thousands of homes without power | Weather News

Harsh weather causes havoc across the region, with snow drifts also shutting down highways and halting trains.

Tens of thousands of homes in Bosnia and Herzegovina were without electricity after heavy snow and winds that also brought traffic chaos in neighbouring Croatia and Serbia.

“Despite efforts and continuous work to repair the faults, the electricity supply situation worsened. Currently, 127,000 metering points are without power,” distributor Elektroprivreda BiH said on Tuesday.

Elektrokrajina, which covers the municipalities of the Serb entity in Bosnia, Republika Srpska, also announced that about 50,000 of its users are without power.

“All available field teams have been deployed and have been working since the early morning hours to repair the faults,” the company stated.

In western Bosnia, a state of emergency was declared after severe weather blocked all entry and exit points to the municipality of Drvar, cutting off its 17,000 residents.

“The situation is extremely difficult. The snow keeps falling. People are stranded in the snow,” Jasna Pecanac, the president of the Drvar Municipal Council, told local media.

Throughout the Balkans, authorities issued travel warnings as snow drifts closed some major routes. Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia banned the movement of heavy vehicles and imposed limited traffic levels on affected roads.

Snowdrifts in some villages around Drvar were up to two metres (6.5 feet) high, and the heavy blizzard made clearing efforts more difficult. “We are requesting assistance for snow clearing. All available machinery is already in the field,” said Pecanac.

Due to heavy snowfall, classes have been cancelled in elementary schools in Banja Luka, the second-largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative centre of Republika Srpska.

A day earlier, classes were also postponed in approximately 70 elementary and high schools in the Una-Sana Canton in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Parts of Bosnia also faced a total halt of railway traffic. The country’s state power company described the situation as “extremely hard” in some areas of the country. Heavy, moist snow brought down distribution lines which were hard to access, it said in a statement.

Regional N1 television reported dozens of vehicles were stuck in the snow for 10 hours in western Bosnia overnight before they could continue.

In Slovenia, the search for an injured Hungarian hiker missing in the Alps north of the capital, Ljubljana, since Sunday was suspended because of strong winds. Rescuers on Monday reached his female companion and transferred her to safety.

In central Croatia, a mountain rescue team used skis early on Tuesday to reach a man who was stuck in his car while heading to a hospital for dialysis. “We brought him there in time,” rescuer Dario Cindric said.