People stranded and roads blocked because of snow

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Thousands of people are stranded in Moldavia because of the snowfall and blizzard. Several national roads are still closed off and the meteorological forecast for the following days points to low temperatures and precipitations.

Winter is not giving up and neither do the authorities who are on permanent alert. Moldavia is the most affected region, where several national roads are blocked and county roads are either unusable or very difficult to use. Thus, seven national roads in Vrancea, Vaslui and Buzau counties as well as 22 county roads are closed off on certain sections and two localities have no electricity. People that needed medical care waited hours on end for the ambulances stuck in snow. Helicopters and half-track ambulances were dispatched to the worst cases, while in other cases snow-clearing vehicles took the people that needed medical assistance to the medical teams. Local authorities were supported by 700 policemen, firefighters and gendarmes that took part in rescue missions in areas affected by heavy snow. Local authorities also benefited from the army’s assistance. In Iasi County a 22-year-old woman gave birth in the fire engine in which she was taken to hospital.In Vaslui County half-tracks were used to respond to a heart attack and to a woman that had kidney and heart problems. Also in Vaslui, on Saturday afternoon a five-month-old baby was taken to hospital by a snow-clearing vehicle after the ambulance that responded to the distress call got stuck in snow. In Buzau County, an ambulance tried to reach the Boldu locality, where a one-year-old baby had convulsions. The locality is transited by National Road 22 Ramnicu Sarat – Braila, a road that was blocked by snow on the night of Thursday to Friday. In the northern part of Galati County the layer of snow measures up to 3 meters in some areas. An extreme situation is registered in Vrancea County too. Four villages are completely cut off. A section of approximately 8 kilometers can only be crossed on foot after the blizzard buried the road under snow and no vehicle can enter the area. Over 50 lorries were stranded yesterday as well at the Albita border crossing point on the border between the Republic of Moldova and Romania. People there have waited for up to 72 hours to enter Romania and have lost their patience. Many of them had no supplies because they were expecting to cross the border uneventfully. Lorry drivers are displeased with the fact that nobody pays any attention to them and the custom office’s leadership and the head of the Border Police told them that they had no power to remedy the situation. “We were told to pick the shovels and clear the snow because it’s not their job to clear the snow from the terminal,” one of the lorry drivers stated. While lorries formed a 6-kilometer queue on the road from the Republic of Moldova to Romania, traffic on the road to the Republic of Moldova is normal.At the same time, the seaports of Constanta and Agigea were closed because of the powerful wind gusts. Constanta ports reopened yesterday as a result of improving weather conditions. All port operations were stopped there on Saturday because of the blizzard.

CNADNR bosses partying at Balea Lake while

Romania struggled with snowWhile seven counties in Moldavia were under watch alert for snowfalls and blizzard, directors from the National Highway Company (CNADNR) partied during the night of Thursday to Friday in a chalet near Balea Lake, under the pretext of organizing an operative action plan during winter. Contacted by Sursa Zilei reporters on the evening of Thursday, January 24, the head of CNADNR had no mobile phone signal. The same happened on Friday morning too, while the Winter Command was meeting at the government headquarters, a meeting in which CNADNR was represented by a simple head of directorate – Cristian Andrei, the head of the safety directorate.Premier Victor Ponta stated on Friday that he asked CNADNR head Mircea Pop to come to Bucharest and if he finds out that the company’s directors “were busy partying, not clearing the snow” on Thursday evening at Balea Lake he will sack them all. At the same time, Deputy Prime Minister Liviu Dragnea criticized CNADNR’s leadership for the way in which it presented information during the Winter Command meeting on Friday at the government, warning that it is “the weak link” and that this is the last time when he accepts “this national blunder.”