Severe weather phenomena
On Tuesday, southern Romania was hit by an average-size tornado.
Roxana Vasile, 02.05.2019, 13:34
Romanians celebrated the International Labour Day right after the Orthodox Easter, so it was a good opportunity to turn the legal days off into a mini holiday. Many chose to spend it on the Romanian Black Sea Coast, where the summer season has officially started. Others preferred the Danube Delta or the beautiful region of Maramures, in the north. Employees of the Interior Ministry were mobilized in particular in the areas where events with a big turnout were organized. Fire-fighters and ambulance crews were on the alert, ready to intervene and prevent incidents, given the large number of open-air events.
The problem was, however, that weather decided to ruin some of the holiday plans, especially in the south of the country, where it got highly unsettled. The problems started on Tuesday evening, when a cold front from Bulgaria met with a warmer and wetter front in southern Romania. Therefore, eight counties and the capital Bucharest were affected by storms and torrential rain. More than one thousand firefighters helped the local population and authorities, evacuating the water accumulated in basements and removing the trees and utility poles felled down by the storm. In the county of Calarasi, in the south, an average-size tornado, a phenomenon which is extremely rare in Romania, uprooted trees and damaged dozens of houses.
A bus was turned upside down and then projected into a nearby field. 39 people were in great danger, but, fortunately, nobody died, although 12 were hurt. Marin Ciuraru, a 38 year old man, who witnessed the phenomenon, told what happened: “I saw a big hole, forming in the field, which was spinning. We were on the bus, the driver stopped and we were hit by stones, and pebbles and dust, some of which got through the windows. We were caught in the whirlwind, I saw everybody tumbling inside the bus and then I felt somebody falling over me and that was it.”
For Wednesday, May 1st, weather experts issued a code yellow warning for strong wind in 18 counties in the south and in Bucharest. Also, notifications were issued all across the country, warning of bad weather in most regions. Heavy rain and storms were reported over extended areas, as well as damaging wind and even hail. Another two warnings for flood were issued for 21 counties in the north and west. The local authorities have already started helping people, by providing them with the necessary materials to repair the roofs and the Government is to issue a decree under which aid will be provided to the families affected by extreme weather.
