Autumn storm Aila is continuing to cause minor damage and power outages as it moves from west to east.
Overnight around 60,000 people were left without electricity as gusts of up to 35 metres per second were recorded, bringing down trees onto power lines. Waves in the Gulf of Bothnia rose to nine metres high as the storm blew across Åland and into Satakunta region on the Finnish mainland.
Rescue departments say they were kept busy, but the storm wasn’t as severe as they anticipated.
“It’s getting calm now, and it’s a good thing. We had a little more than 300 cases, trees are falling on electric wires or on houses or roads, there were no major damages and no people were injured, just cutting trees and making clear roads” explains Juha Salo from the Satakunta Rescue Department.
“We were waiting for more, but it’s busy enough” he says.
In Åland a combination of a slightly weaker storm than anticipated, and a different trajectory, kept damages to a minimum.
“We were expecting much worse winds than we got so we have only minor damages such as trees over roads. I think we’re up to something between 10 and 12 calls regarding falling trees and boats and so on. It’s really good” says Mariehamn Rescue Department Chief Karl Nordlund.
“They had stronger winds on the mainland coast areas and I think the highest wind speeds here were about 30 metres per second at the top, and an average wind speed of maybe 22, 23 metres per second. It’s strong enough absolutely” he tells News Now Finland.
As the storm moved east there have been minor damage reported in Tampere, and power cuts in Mikkeli as well by Thursday afternoon.
By 22:00 on Thursday night the strongest winds will be in the southeast of the country as the storm weakens and moves into Russia.
