Deadly Storm Kills Eight
A deadly storm that swept across the Mazury lake district in northeast Poland Aug. 21 killed eight people, while three are listed as missing. Yachtsmen say that such a sudden turn in the weather has not been seen in the region for years. Winds reaching speeds of nearly 120 km an hour, or 11 on the Beaufort scale, accompanied by intense rain in popular inland ports such as Mikołajki and Giżycko caused about 50 yachts to overturn, of which 29 sank. Some of the wrecks lie 25-30 meters deep.
Rescuers from the Voluntary Water Rescue Service (WOPR) pulled out 84 people from sunk or damaged yachts, canoes and boats on lakes Śniardwy, Niegocin, Łabap, Jagodne and Mikołajskie located in the heart of the Mazurian lake district. A total of 17 injured people were taken to hospital. Some, resuscitated after they swallowed large amounts of water, are still in intensive care. Those who died drowned after they fell into the water when their boats capsized. A 22-year-old man in a kayak and another man in a yacht drowned in Lake Mikołajskie. Four people, a five-year-old boy, two men and a 50-year-old woman drowned in Lake Śniardwy. The final victim was pulled out of Lake Łabap.
Apart from the Mazurian rescue services, WOPR rescuers and firefighters, police also took part in the rescue effort. Two helicopters, an airplane, a vehicle with a thermal imaging camera and dogs were used to help search for bodies in the water. The search was called off on the night of Aug. 22 due to bad conditions and poor visibility. They were renewed in the morning. WOPR and fire brigade divers tried to reach the yachts that had sunk. According to witness reports in several of them were yachtsmen who could not get out. But no further bodies have so far been found. A list of missing persons was drawn up mainly after calls from their families. From the initial list of nine people missing in the water, four dead male bodies were found. The fifth man reported to the authorities as missing had not sailed out at all. He hadn't told his relatives what he was doing as the battery on his mobile phone had gone dead.
Two men and two women remain unaccounted for. Rescue teams, which officially ended their rescue efforts on Aug. 23, say the chances of finding anyone alive who was in the water are zero. Despite that, rescuers and family members of the missing people continue to search the area of the tragedy. Experts say the reason the storm claimed so many lives could be the fact that many yachtsmen, even the experienced ones, misjudged the conditions and instead of heading for shore or sailing into rushes, attempted to reach the port they had set out from.
Some later said that despite having spent the last 20 or 25 years of their summer holidays on the Mazurian lakes they didn't remember such weather. Additionally, many yachts didn't have life jackets, or the yachtsmen, including children, hadn't put them on. Polish inland sailing law says it is obligatory for children under 12 to wear life jackets, but the law is widely ignored.
Witnesses say the weather turned in the space of just several minutes. However meteorologists claim that warnings about the anomalies in the weather, and about the dangers of a sudden storm and downpour, were given several hours before the storm broke out. However, tourists did not take the forecasts seriously enough. It was thought that the storms would start in the evening, but strong winds started to blow at about 2.30 p.m. The peak of the squall lasted about an hour and swept across the whole region. According to witnesses, the white squall looked like a tornado. The wind blew over boats, broke masts and also damaged several concrete jetties.
Many roads were blocked by trees that had been knocked down. Falling trees damaged five houses. There were reports that many cellars and garages in Mrągowo and Giżycko were flooded. There were also several cars damaged. On the night of Aug. 23 further bad weather hit the Kujawy-Pomerania and Małopolska provinces. Rescuers were called more than 70 times to pump out water from flooded cellars, government and company buildings in Bydgoszcz. In the Małopolska region, gales tore off close to 200 roofs. Many Cracow streets were flooded as the drains could not keep up with the rain. Train services were paralyzed between Nowy Targ and the southern mountain resort of Zakopane, and drivers on the route leading from Zakopane to Cracow were held up in traffic jams.
Fonte:
Warsaw Voice
