Severe Storm Causes Deaths and Massive Power Outages Across Baltic Region

Two people died and numerous others were injured after a severe storm hit the Baltic countries over the weekend. One fatality occurred in Jelgava, Latvia, when a building structure collapsed, and another occurred in Lithuania when a man was crushed by a falling tree. In Latvia, 14 people were injured, while Lithuania reported injuries to two women in the Kaunas and Šilutė districts. The storm brought heavy rain and wind speeds exceeding 30 meters per second in Riga and 33 meters per second on the Lithuanian coast. Power outages affected hundreds of thousands of customers, with approximately 277,000 clients without electricity in Latvia and 256,000 in Lithuania. The storm also disrupted mobile services, gas stations, and public transport, including trains and flights in Riga. In Estonia, ferry traffic to northern islands was heavily impacted. The storm, identified as Cyclone Prisca, also affected Poland and Belarus, leaving over 145,000 households without power in Poland. While both sources agree on the severity of the event, they differ on the historical context. A center left source describes the storm in Latvia as the strongest summer storm since 1966, whereas a center right source cites a Latvian official who called it the most extensive storm since 2005.