site.btaNE Bulgaria Gripped by Severe Winter Chill

NE Bulgaria Gripped by Severe Winter Chill

Sofia, January 7 (BTA) - Bulgaria is in the grip of harsh winter weather, with the north-east bearing the brunt of it.

Regional Development Minister Liliyana Pavlova said there were serious winter difficulties in the regions of Dobrich, Silistra, Shoumen, Razgrad, Turgovishte and Varna, and in parts of the regions of Bourgas and Rousse. Most roads in all those regions are not navigable.

Those regions have severe cold, strong wind, snow drifts and near-zero visibility. Crews of the Road Infrastructure Agency and all road-maintenance companies worked through the night to Saturday to open roads to traffic. Troops joined the road clearing effort in Rousse Region. The main roads in those regions will be opened during the day, according to Pavlova. 

Energy Minister Temenouzhka Petkova said 75,000 households were without electricity on Saturday morning. The three electricity-distribution companies operating in Bulgaria reported power outages as follows: Energo-Pro, in Northeastern Bulgaria, 242 settlements; EVN, in Eastern and Southern Bulgaria: 50 settlements; and CEZ, which services Northwestern Bulgaria, three settlements. Over 200 crews are working across the country to restore power.

At 3.30 pm on Saturday there were just 155 settlements without electricity.

Chief Commissioner Nikolay Nikolov, head of the Fire Safety and Civil Protection Directorate General, said there had been no calls from people in distress. During the night to Saturday crews helped people stranded in snow banks, including five patients on dialysis in Varna Region. The emergency shelters for homeless people are filled to capacity.

Pavlova said crews were working hard to reopen the road between Veliko Turnovo and Varna. The roads linking Rousse with Razgrad and Silistra are expected to reopen on Saturday.

Snow ploughs are clearing the road between Isperih and Razgrad to take a woman in labour to hospital.

Crews are also working on the road between Varna and Dobrich. The road between Bourgas and Sunny Beach has been reopened. The roads to the winter resorts are navigable and thins there are calm, said Pavlova. Varna Airport reopened early on Saturday.

The border checkpoints with Macedonia and Serbia have been closed by those countries. The border checkpoints with Greece, Turkey and Romania are open.

The opposition again slammed the government for using winter weather as a campaign gimmick. "This fear strategy was used even before the [November] presidential elections," Kiril Dobrev of the Executive Bureau of the Bulgarian Socialist Party told a briefing Saturday.

The Education Ministry said many mayors had extended the schools' winter holidays again due to the chilly weather.