Kulbergs: storm cleanup exposes lack of coordination among Latvia's services

Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs, currently on an official visit to Ukraine, commented in a video posted on X (Twitter) on the powerful storm that hit Latvia over the weekend. In his view, the event revealed that state services are not sufficiently coordinated with one another, adding that Latvia has not yet fully learned the lessons of Russia's war against Ukraine.

The prime minister noted that a storm of similar scale in winter would have far worse consequences, since residents could simultaneously be left without water, electricity and heating. Kulbergs said that the previous day he had visited a military crisis-management centre in Ukraine, where he saw how a single screen was used to coordinate not only military operations but also the work of firefighters, police and other civilian services. He said Latvia should adopt this approach.

Promises and criticism

The government is ready, if necessary, to allocate additional funding from the budget's contingency reserve to strengthen the services, and to introduce new regulations if needed, Kulbergs said. He added that businesses themselves must also be prepared for crisis situations — for example, by having generators on hand to avoid losses caused by power outages, rather than relying solely on the state.

The prime minister also criticised Latvian Radio for telling listeners during the storm to look for current information online. He pointed out that a third of Latvia's territory is already covered by an alternative civil-protection communications system, and that with relatively modest investment this coverage could be extended across the entire country to ensure uninterrupted communication during crises.

The storm, described as the strongest summer storm in Latvia in recent decades, struck on Saturday and continued into the night, with wind gusts locally exceeding 30 metres per second. It caused extensive damage to distribution and transmission power networks, initially cutting electricity to about 277,000 customers. By Monday morning, roughly 87,000 customers across the country were still without power.