The situation in the east is getting worse. Due to unfavorable weather, Košice declared a state of emergency
Eastern Slovakia was hit by a blizzard. As reported by the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMÚ), 15 to 30 centimeters of snow had fallen in some places by 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, sometimes even more.
“The Štós automatic station reports 34 cm of new snow, while the northern slopes of the Volovské and Slanské hills may have more than 40 cm of new snow, according to the precipitation totals (around 40 mm),” meteorologists write.
A catastrophic situation
The city of Košice has declared a 1st degree of calamity due to unfavorable weather.
Dušan Tokarčík, the spokesperson of the municipality, informed about this, saying that the strong wind and intense snowfall limited the traffic of the city’s public transport.
In addition to about two layers of snow, strong winds also cause problems. The road workers deployed 24 mechanisms at night, currently there are 30 in the field. They will be reinforced with external equipment and backup resources.
The director of the municipality’s crisis staff stated that they had been treating the main roads with sprinkling material since Saturday (12/10) evening, but the heavy freezing rain washed away the material and eliminated any preventive sprinkling.
“Our priority is to maintain passable main roads in the city, i.e. those on which public transport operates, as well as roads that are to be used by fire and rescue vehicles,” he said.
According to the city’s problems, the buses are running late, especially in hilly areas – in the KVP settlement, Dargovské hrdinov and in the Podhradová area.
The trams were not dispatched at all due to the frozen traction line.
“Therefore, we ask the residents of the city to stay at home today, if they do not have to go anywhere urgently. Despite our enormous efforts, this battle with nature cannot be won,” said Čop. If the situation does not change, the city will declare a 2nd degree of calamity.
Tokarčík recalled that in connection with the sidewalks, their administrators received an SMS message requesting maintenance. “However, the city also realizes that it can get to a good state only after it calms down,” he added.
Guards also in the west
SHMÚ claims that a less significant precipitation band has advanced over western Slovakia, where it has also started to snow. However, with light precipitation, sleet or rain also occasionally occurs.
With the exception of eight districts in central Slovakia, warnings of the first and second level against wind, snowfall, ice, wind on the mountains and rain are currently valid for the entire territory of Slovakia.
Warnings for Sunday, December 11. Source: shmu.sk
More details about the warnings can be found at SHMÚ website.
See also the weather forecast for the next few days.
Learn more in the attached report above.