Kuldīga seminar reviews lessons from August storm and war in Ukraine for municipalities

A seminar titled "Municipal resilience and continuity in crises: lessons from the August storm and Ukraine" took place in Kuldīga, Latvia, where municipal, state service and industry representatives discussed how to prepare better for future crises. The topic is pressing because the storm exposed shortcomings in power supply, communications and public warnings, while Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the threat to Latvia's eastern border make security especially important.

Gints Kaminskis, chair of the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments, said that the better educated the population, the safer the country. He noted that cooperation and decision-making have improved, and stressed the need to work with Ukrainian municipalities.

Lessons from the storm

Līga Rozentāle, deputy state secretary at the Ministry of Climate and Energy, said power outages in eight municipalities lasted more than 72 hours. Compensation for the fixed distribution service fee is now planned when an outage exceeds that time. Municipalities should prepare short instructions on where to get help, charge phones and obtain drinking water. A total of 40 million euros is available to municipalities for flood risk reduction; support can reach 85%, and 90% in the eastern border area.

Kristaps Kolbergs, head of the Operational Management Department of the State Fire and Rescue Service (VUGD), said cell broadcast warnings did not reach all residents of threatened areas, and that VUGD radio communications were disrupted around Ogre and Olaine. After the storm the service compiled more than 85 proposals to improve its work.

Crisis structure and volunteers

Vilmārs Vecvagaris, a civil protection expert at Liepāja municipality, said the city is building a crisis-time structure in a pilot project and plans ten resilience points with satellite internet, a generator and drinking water. Institutions are divided into red, yellow and green groups by their importance in a crisis.

Andris Jefimovs, head of the South Kurzeme municipality fire service, said the area has 15 volunteer firefighter teams with about 70 active members.

Experience from Ukraine

Halyna Minaieva, head of the Chuhuiv council, whose town lies near Kharkiv, stressed the need to adapt, act quickly and keep essential services running even when infrastructure is damaged.