As a result of the strong storm that hit a large part of Bosnia and Herzegovina last night, numerous residential buildings, cars, and roads were damaged. Material damage is still being determined. The storm in Brčko also claimed one life.
Weather problems were also recorded in Banjaluka, Bijeljina, Prijedor, Tuzla, Sarajevo, Kozarska Dubica, Samac, and numerous other BiH cities.
Possible declaration of a natural disaster in Tuzla Canton
The storm that engulfed the area of Tuzla Canton caused enormous material damage, the wind carried the roofs of residential and business buildings and felled trees, but luckily there were no casualties, said the director of the Cantonal Administration of Civil Protection of Tuzla Canton, Zoran Jovanović.
He stated that in last night’s storm, Gračanica suffered the worst, where a large number of residential, business buildings and educational institutions were damaged and their roofs were blown off.
“Civil protection teams and the population worked from last night until this morning on clearing road communications, removing fallen trees and other solid material that was carried by the strong wind,” said Jovanović and added that the clearing continues today.
He said that material damage has been caused in almost all municipalities and cities of the Tuzla Canton, that the Gračanica Civil Protection Headquarters is in ambush, so it is possible that a state of natural disaster will be declared in this area.
In Bijeljina, 23 people were injured
In the storm in Bijeljina, 23 people were injured, two of whom were kept for treatment at the Bijeljina Hospital “Sveti vračevi” due to the severity of their injuries, said duty doctor Milan Todorović.
“A middle-aged man with broken ribs and an elderly woman with head injuries who are undergoing additional diagnostics were hospitalized,” said Todorović.
According to him, the other patients were taken care of and returned to home treatment.
Todorović said that in the storm that hit Bijeljina last night, there was also damage to the Hospital’s facilities, the roof of two old buildings in the hospital compound, one of which is a day hospital for oncology, was lifted.
The storm in Brčko broke trees, a large number of failures in the electrical distribution network
The storm that ravaged the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina last night also caused a large number of breakdowns in the electrical distribution network. All available crews have been working on troubleshooting since last night.
Many trees broke the wires or the wind caused damage to the poles, according to JP “Komunalno” Brčko. Also, during the night, workers from JP “Komunalno” Brčko removed and cleaned all the broken trees in more than 70 locations in the city and its surroundings.
A large number of interventions were performed by employees of the Emergency Medical Service, a total of 102 interventions. Firefighters had 35 interventions, of which three were fires, and the rest were technical interventions. One firefighter was injured during the intervention.
More than 100 residential buildings were damaged in Vukosavlje
The storm damaged more than 100 residential buildings in Vukosavlje, numerous roads, and the roof was removed from the building of the Elementary School in Pećnik, said the mayor of the municipality, Borislav Rakić.
Rakić, who is the commander of the Civil Protection headquarters, said that no one was injured, and that the damage to buildings and infrastructure amounted to hundreds of thousands of BAM.
Restrictions on train traffic in the RS are being introduced
“Zeljeznice Republika Srpska” (ŽRS) is introducing restrictions on freight and passenger rail traffic on the sections Šamac-Doboj-Maglaj, Kostajnica-Banjaluka and Doboj-Petrovo Novo due to damage caused by a strong storm.
“Zeljeznica” clarified that this is a transport restriction in rail traffic at border crossings where the transport route includes the mentioned sections of the railway.
The press release states that a poplar tree fell on the contact network at the entrance to the Doboj station due to a strong wind, which caused an interruption in the power supply.
The contact network in the area of the Šamac station was also damaged, where the wind threw roof structures from nearby buildings, and the roof of the station building was destroyed.
The contact network on which two poplars fell was also damaged in the area of the Local Community of Kožuha near Doboj, and in Ljeskovo Vode, the wind knocked down a tree on the railroad.
ŽRS points out that all competent teams are on the ground, the damage is being assessed and they are undertaking activities to remove and repair the consequences of damage to the railway infrastructure.
As part of passenger traffic on the sections Doboj-Petrovo Novo and Doboj-Stanari, alternative bus transportation is provided.
The transport restriction in the “Railway of the Republika Srpska” railway will be valid until further notice, i.e. until the conditions for the regular functioning of railway traffic on these routes are met.
The storm damaged a large number of power facilities
As a result of the storm in Semberija and in the area of Podrinje and the Podmajevic region, there was significant damage to a large number of power facilities, the company “Elektro-Bijeljina” announced.
Several substations and a large number of transmission lines were damaged, and in many places trees fell on the network.
