More than 200,000 homes in Bosnia and Herzegovina remained powerless for a second consecutive day on Wednesday after a sharp snowstorm caused wide damage across the Balkan region.
The outages mainly occurred in northwestern and central Bosnia, where several towns and villages remained without electricity, according to the country’s two major power utilities. As snowfall ended on Wednesday, coinciding with Christmas celebrations among the Catholic population, many roads remained blocked, preventing access to affected areas.
Jelena Markovic, a spokesperson for Elektroprenos BiH, the distribution company, said crews were working to restore power but faced the problem of inaccessible transmission lines in the affected areas.
In neighboring Croatia, emergency services reported rescuing 48 people trapped in snow in the central Lika region. Meanwhile, in Slovenia, authorities struggled to reach a Hungarian hiker stranded in the Alps due to strong winds and snow, complicating rescue efforts.
Western Serbia also reported some interruptions, with an estimated 10,000 households without electricity for some part of Wednesday. “Everything is almost back to normal now,” said Ivan Spajic, the head of the emergency department in Sabac.
A great mark has been left across the region by this snowstorm, with a series of efforts to unblock the roads and resume basic services.
