Storm leaves thousands without power in Crimea

More than 400,000 people were without power in Crimea on Monday after hurricane-force winds and heavy rain battered the Russian-annexed peninsula over the weekend.

Initial reports said a local official said one man was killed on the peninsula’s southern coast as wind speeds exceeded 140 kilometers per hour (about 90 mph) in some places.

“The man went out to see the waves and unfortunately, tragically, he died,” Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the region’s Russian-installed governor, Sergei Aksyonov, said on state television.

“To date, about 425,000 people are without electricity. About 500 trees have fallen,” Aksyonov said in a speech on Monday.

“We plan to restore power across the republic within two days,” he said, adding that emergency services had been “mobilized”.

Crimean lawmaker Vladimir Konstantinov said on state television that Crimea had experienced an “Armageddon”-like scenario.

“People in the past wouldn’t remember this kind of wind and waves,” he said.

Part of the coastal highway connecting Yevpatoria and Simferopol was closed due to flooding, and ferry services from Crimea’s largest city, Sevastopol, were also suspended.

Around 500 marine animals at an aquarium in Sevastopol died after one of its floors was flooded during a storm, Moscow’s governor announced.

Mainland Ukraine and southern Russia were also affected.

Rail traffic was disrupted on Russia’s Black Sea coast after a track fell into the sea, and oil loading was halted at the port of Novorossiysk.

More than 2,000 towns and villages in mainland Ukraine also lost power on Monday due to bad weather, the Kiev government said.

Ukraine’s energy grid has been systematically targeted by the Russian military since Moscow’s offensive began last year, with officials warning that attacks could intensify into the winter.

Source: guardian.ng