Gabrovo Municipality Remains under Disaster Emergency

Wide-spread damage caused by gusty winds is seen in the town of Tryavna in the Gabrovo municipality in central Bulgaria. Photo by Tryavna online

The emergency situation declared last evening for the central Bulgarian municipality of Gabrovo due to hurricane-like winds with speeds over 120 km/h remains in place.

The storm raged there for over 8 hours, ending with a fatality, after a scaffold fell on a 36-year-old woman, killing her on the spot. Others have sustained light injuries from falling objects. A man, 76, has been admitted to the hospital in stable condition, while another 9 people have been examined by ER doctors and released for home treatment.

Schools in the entire Gabrovo municipality are closed Friday. 30 villages are still without power. Many others experience outages. Cell phone connections have been impeded.

There are scores of fallen trees, overturned thrash containers, broken store and house windows. Many roads are blocked. A number of buildings have sustained damage, particularly on their roofs, including key Gabrovo buildings such as the courthouse, the theater, the sports facility, and the central and maternity wards of the local hospital.

Caretaker Health Minister, Prof. Nikolay Petrov, already visited the hospital and has assured its Head that the facility will receive funding for repairs after the damage is assessed.

Now former Minister for the Management of EU Funds, a Gabrovo local, and former Mayor of the city, Tomislav Donchev, has also arrived there to help people in need. He says securing places where there are hanging tin fences, roofs, and broken branches is top priority.

Trolleys in the city are not functioning Friday due to damage in the electric power grid.

Firefighters and Civil Defense teams are continuing the cleaning effort. People are asked to not venture outside if possible and limit the use of their private vehicles.

Elderly locals are quoted saying they have never witnessed such natural disaster.

There is building damage, broken windows, and fallen trees and billboards in the other central city and municipality of Veliko Tarnovo, where there are no injured people. A mass cleaning effort is currently taking place. 9 villages are still without power. The Elena-Tvarditsa road remains closed for traffic.

Similar damage is reported in the northeastern city and municipality of Shumen as well.

In the Bansko municipality, near the ski resort in the Pirin mountain, raising river waters have closed the road between the villages of Filipovo and Ossenovo, and a wooden bridge has been destroyed.

The press center of the Interior Ministry reports that the situation is slowly coming back to normal.

22 regions remain under code yellow while code orange is in place for the Sliven Region. Only Sofia Region, Sofia city, Pernik, Kyustendil, and Blagoevgrad in western Bulgaria are under code green.

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