Bad weather closes down highways, national roads in Romania

Snow and blizzards have taken over Romania in the last two days, with the south, east, some of the center and north – east of the country most affected. Over 100 national roads have been closed, and even the three highways, A1, A2 and A3 were closed down because of the blizzard. Rail traffic between Ploiesti and Urziceni is also closed as of Sunday morning. Train traffic has also been disrupted, with most trains arriving to or departing from the main Bucharest railway station Gara de Nord displaying delays ranging from one to several hours. Over 60 cars were stuck in the snow on the roads in the counties of Calarasi and Urziceni, and authorities have deployed teams of gendarmes, police and military to help those affected by the bad weather. One of the reasons authorities preferred to close down the three highways connecting Bucharest to the rest of the country was to avoid having cars stuck and traffic disrupted on the highways too. Over 5,000 troops were part of intervention teams over the weekend. In Bucharest, over 1,200 calls have been made to the ambulance within 24 hours over the weekend, and 400 of them were emergencies. These included car crashes and fractures caused by the ice. The South - East of Romania is under a Code Orange for snow and blizzards, and meteorologists warn they could issue a Red Code for the region should it continue snowing. Other areas were placed under a Code Yellow, for lower quantities of snow, while the rest of the country remains unaffected. See map below, together with a map showing the thickness of the layer of snow.

Closed roads as of Sunday morning (January 26):

A1 (Bucuresti - Pitesti) A2 (Bucuresti - Drajna) A2 (Drajna - Fetesti) A3 (Bucuresti - Ploiesti) DN 1B (Mizil - Buzau) DN 1D (Albesti - Urziceni) DN 2 (Afumati - Focsani) DN 21 (Calarasi - Slobozia) DN 21A (Baraganu - Tandarei) DN 22 (Ramnicu Sarat - Braila) DN 22A (Ciucurova-Harsova) DN 22D (Horia - Atmagea) DN 22E (Garvan-I.C.Bratianu) DN 23 (Olaneasca - Braila) DN 23A (Gologanu - Ciorasti) DN 23B (Maicanesti - Ciorasti) DN 24D (Varlezi - Intersectie cu DN 26) DN 2A (Urziceni - Slobozia) DN 2B (Buzau - Rosetti) DN 2C (Costesti (int. cu DN2)- Padina) DN 2N (Bogza - Caiata - Dumbraveni) DN 3 (Fundulea - Calarasi) DN 31 (Calarasi - Oltenita) DN 4 (bypass Bucharest - Oltenita) DN 5 (bypass Bucharest - Giurgiu) DN 67C (Novaci - Ranca/GJ) DN 7 (Pitesti - Ramnicu Valcea) DN CB (Bragadiru-Jilava)