Tens of thousands without power after storms over Baltic
Due to storm and rain, thousands of people in the Baltic countries of Lithuania and Latvia have experienced power outages. According to energy supplier ESO, an estimated 165,000 households in Lithuania had no power or suffered from interruptions.
The entire country was affected, particularly the capital Vilnius and its surroundings, reported news agency BNS based on these figures. In Latvia, 37,000 customers of network operator Sadales Tikls were without power.
The heavy storm over the Baltic Sea uprooted trees, toppled masts, and damaged the dome of Riga Cathedral. Riga's Vice Mayor, Edvards Ratnieks, released a short video showing the storm catching the dome under a tin roof and causing it to tremble. Riga Cathedral is the largest church in the Baltic States.
From Sunday to Monday, nearly twice the average July rainfall fell in Latvia, according to the country's meteorological service. Flights were cancelled at Riga, Vilnius, and Kaunas airports, and the Lithuanian railway reported delays due to the storm. In the village of Grigiskes near Vilnius, a man was killed by a falling tree.
The Baltic Sea, affected by the storm, brought ten thousand liters of rain to Latvia within a day, nearly doubling the usual July rainfall. Despite the weather, electric utilities managed to restore power to some but not all of the affected households, with ESO estimating around 165,000 houses in Lithuania still without electricity or experiencing interruptions. The sharp rain caused a tree to fall and tragically take the life of a man in the village of Grigiskes near Vilnius.
