This weekend, two people were killed in Bulgaria by a violent storm that also hit neighboring Romania and caused falling trees and power outages on the Black Sea coast.
A 43-year-old woman was crushed to death by a tree in the eastern city of Varna on Saturday evening, Bulgarian police said in a statement on Sunday. Two rescuers who were on site were also injured by falling branches.
Earlier in Sofia, a 65-year-old driver died when a tree fell on his car, while his wife was hospitalized in serious condition.
If the weather situation has calmed down in the capital on Sunday, strong winds of more than 100 km/h and rough seas with waves of more than five meters can still be expected in eastern Bulgaria.
The coastal city of Varna, like eight other places in the region, has declared a state of emergency and residents are being asked to stay at home.
“The power was cut off in all parts of the city,” Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev said, adding that many vehicles were blocked because of “tons of branches” on the streets.
The chaos was worsened by snow in the Northeast, where police received dozens of calls from drivers in distress.
Air and rail traffic was also severely affected.
The same storm hit neighboring Romania, where Black Sea ports had to be closed to shipping.
The weather service has issued the highest red alert for the provinces of Constanta and Tulcea.
Tens of thousands of homes lost power and firefighters stepped in to remove 140 trees that had fallen onto the road. About forty vehicles were damaged.
“Fortunately, no deaths have been reported at this point,” Anamaria Stoica, emergency relief spokeswoman in Constanta, told AFP. Messages were sent to residents’ phones urging them to be careful.
Bulgaria has been hit by numerous storms in recent weeks.
Two men died in early November, while Storm Ciaran claimed around twenty lives in Europe. Four people died in floods in September.
Extreme weather events (cyclones, heat waves, floods, droughts, etc.) are natural phenomena. But global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities can exacerbate them.