Storm in Slovenia leaves 1,800 households without power

(Patria) - Around 1,800 households in the areas of Ljubljana and Maribor are still without electricity after a severe storm accompanied by strong winds hit Slovenia on Wednesday, the Slovenian News Agency (STA) reported.

According to the latest data from the Protection and Rescue Centre, the storm front hit central and northeastern Slovenia the hardest, where dozens of fire brigade interventions were recorded.

Hurricane-force wind gusts knocked down trees onto roads and the power grid, and the wind completely tore off roofs from several residential and commercial buildings.

In the distribution area of the company Elektro Ljubljana, 17 transformer stations are out of operation, leaving around 800 consumers without power.

From the Ljubljana electricity distribution company, they currently cannot specify when the supply will be fully restored.

A series of minor network failures also occurred in the wider supply area of Elektro Maribor, where around 1,000 users were left without power after last night's storm. All available teams have been in the field since the early morning hours, and full normalisation of the power system in the Maribor area is expected during the day.

The storm also caused problems on the network of Elektro Celje, where in the middle of the day slightly more than 200 consumers were without power, almost half of them in the area of Polzela, followed by the towns of Mestinje, Slovenj Gradec and Nazarje.

In the Gorenjska region, one major incident was recorded when, due to roof damage and water ingress into a transformer station in the municipality of Jesenice, around 4,500 consumers were left without power. That fault was successfully repaired within an hour.