Storm also disrupted emergency medical service operations, says Cipule

Liene Cipule, director of Latvia's Emergency Medical Service (NMPD), said in an interview on Latvian Television's "Rīta panorāma" that the biggest challenge during the recent severe summer storm was not the loss of electricity but prolonged, and in some cases complete, breakdowns in communication. Sixteen NMPD locations initially lost power, but according to Cipule, an even greater problem was that backup communication tools — radios — simply stopped working in some areas.

Cipule said she personally worked until midnight on Saturday, helping coordinate the response and staying in contact with the Ministry of Health and hospitals, but after midnight she lost power, phone connection and even radio contact. Although her household has a generator, it did not have enough fuel stored. She noted that many of her staff faced similar difficulties making operational decisions as events unfolded one after another. The most difficult situation was around Jēkabpils and Daugavpils, where some medical crews temporarily vanished from tracking entirely and could not be reached.

Problems reaching 112 and delayed response

On Sunday it emerged that in at least two cases, residents living near the border with Russia had trouble reaching emergency services by calling 112. Both cases were eventually resolved — in one, State Fire and Rescue Service staff, alerted by radio, began providing help themselves. Cipule said it still needs to be determined whether the difficulty reaching NMPD stemmed from network coverage problems or from overload on the 112 line, which also received calls unrelated to life-threatening emergencies.

The NMPD director also mentioned two significant delays in crew arrival — in one case a person waited two hours for help, in another 45 minutes. Fallen trees blocked access in places, so Fire and Rescue Service crews often went ahead of medical teams to clear the way.

Despite the difficulties, Cipule praised the high level of cooperation between services and concluded that prior preparedness efforts, including planning for communication breakdowns, had proven their worth.

As previously reported, on August 22 and the following night Latvia was hit by its strongest summer storm in decades, with wind gusts exceeding 30 meters per second in places. The storm caused extensive damage to power grids, initially cutting electricity to around 277,000 customers. Three days later, about 11,000 customers still remained without power.