Tens of thousands without power - transport disrupted
A storm that raged across Finland on Monday has cut off power from thousands of households in western, southern and south-western areas. The storm also caused disruptions to train traffic and mobile phone networks. Power companies say repairs could take several days.
Energy companies Fortum and Vattenfall said on Sunday evening over 200,000 of their customers were suffering blackouts. Small energy companies have also reported power cuts.
South-western Finland was the worst affected area in the morning, but by midday Fortum said that problems were distributed equally throughout Western Finland, Southern Finland and Satakunta.
Work has been ongoing since early in the morning to repair the damage. Power companies Fortum and Vattenfall advise customers that restoration of power supplies could take some days. They also advise people to stay clear of downed power lines as they may still be live and pose a danger of fatal electric shock.
Mobile services take a hit
A base station
(YLE)
Such massive power cuts also affected base stations of the cellular phone
network. Problems with the mobile phone network were widespread in western
and south-western Finland and also extended to the rest of the south and the
province of Pirkanmaa.
Some and radio and TV services were also cut for short periods in some areas.
The Finnish Meteorological Institute issued warnings for dangerous winds in the provinces of Satakunta, Varsinais-Suomi and Uusimaa on Monday. High winds are felled trees and threw objects about.
Rail services disrupted
The storm has also caused problems in rail traffic. Train traffic is suspended on the following lines: Toijala-Turku, Pori-Tampere and Kirkkonummi-Karjaa. Replacement bus services have been introduced. Finnish State Railways (VR) aims to resume services on affected lines on Tuesday.
Trains on other lines are also subject to delays mainly due to trees falling on tracks or downed high tension cables.
Ferry services are also experiencing difficulties due to the stormy sea. However, air traffic continued normally.
Motorists faced downed trees on the roads along with strong winds, and in some areas also snow and sleet. Fallen trees have been removed from major highways but many side roads remain blocked.
YLE