Minister Tavars: Latvia was not prepared for such a devastating storm
Regional development minister Edgars Tavars says the recent storm exposed serious weaknesses in Latvia's power and communications resilience, and is pushing to extend the deadline for municipalities to report storm damage for state compensation.
Latvia's minister for regional development and environmental protection, Edgars Tavars (Apvienotais saraksts), has acknowledged that the country was better prepared for flooded streets and heavy rain than for the scale of power and mobile communication outages caused by the recent storm. Speaking in a special broadcast on Latvian Television, he said the full extent of the damage cannot yet be calculated but could turn out to be historically high.
The minister listed the main lessons learned: the need for more generators, protection of strategic infrastructure, hospitals, care centers, mobile network towers, and better organization of road and rail traffic. He admitted that municipalities had previously focused mainly on shelters, while the fragility of the energy system during a crisis proved to be a major lesson. The issue is expected to be discussed at Monday's crisis council meeting.
Hardest-hit regions
According to the minister, the Latgale and Zemgale regions suffered the most damage, though effects were felt across the country, including the coast. In some areas, power outages are even hampering emergency services — in Preiļi, for example, fuel stations without generators cannot refuel emergency vehicles.
Extended compensation deadline
Tavars told the LETA news agency that he will propose extending the deadline for municipalities to report damage to the Cabinet of Ministers from the current three working days to ten days, since municipalities first need to focus on recovery rather than paperwork. A related report is being prepared for Tuesday's Cabinet meeting. The extension would apply only to damage from the storm of August 22–23.
The minister explained that municipalities reporting damage to their own infrastructure to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM) can receive 70% state compensation over a two-year period, with the remainder covered by the municipality itself. Residents can also file damage claims with their local municipality, which can then request VARAM cover 50% of the compensation after an inspection.
The storm on Saturday evening and overnight into Sunday left more than a quarter of a million Latvian households without electricity.
