The summer storms announced by yellow alert of heavy rain at the beginning of the week hurt several people and damaged property in almost half of Romania.

Military firemen intervened in 91 localities in 17 counties in Romania affected by heavy rainfalls and storms in the past 24 hours, the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU) said.

One person died and 29 were hurt after the severe weather phenomena. Some 700 trees fell to the ground, and tens of roofs and cars were damaged.

The affected counties were Alba, Argeş, Bistriţa-Năsăud,  Brăila, Cluj, Călăraşi, Caraş-Severin, Dâmboviţa, Galaţi, Giurgiu, Hunedoara, Ialomiţa, Maramureş, Mureş, Prahova, Sălaj and Vaslui.

“Because of the heavy wind and lightning, 30 victims were reported nationwide. At the same time, 687 trees fell down on streets, cars, houses and electricity pillars, and 24 roofs and 72 cars were damaged,” IGSU said.

Firemen also intervened at 18 residences that had been flooded.

The traffic on the national road DN1, on the segment between Busteni and Azuga localities, and on the national road DN7C Transfăgărăşan took place with difficulties and specialized teams had to intervene to clean the roads.

In Galaţi county, 22 people were hurt by the trees that fell down or by broken tree branches in the Tuesday afternoon storm, the city’s Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (ISU) said on July 26.

Thirty cars were damaged and many houses were left without electricity. ISU counted 150 fallen trees in the county. Firemen put out two fires that had started because of the lightning at two feed warehouses in Izvoarele and Stoicani localities in Galaţi county.

Houses in eight localities, namely Galaţi, Slobozia Conachi, Cuca, Schela, Negea, M. Kogălniceanu, Cişmele and Izvoarele, were left without electricity after the storm damaged electricity wires or pillars.

Electricity distribution company SDEE Muntenia Nord, which covers the Brăila, Buzău, Dâmbovița, Galați, Prahova, and Vrancea counties, said that 14 electricity lines and 174 electricity transformers were still affected by the recent weather phenomena the morning of July 26. These were supplying electricity to approximately 1,000 consumers. The company said it was working to remedy the situation but the work was made difficult because of the trees that fell on its network.

During the morning of July 26 there were no reported situations that required the intervention of the military firemen, IGSU said.

The bad weather in June and July also affected woods all across Romania, Some 80,000 of hectares of woods were partially damaged because of the strong wind.

editor@romania-insider.com