VLADIVOSTOK, March 3 (Itar-Tass) - The powerful snow cyclone with gusts of wind of up to 38 m/sec left Sakhalin on Sunday, leaving twelve settlements of more than 10,000 people in the south of the island without electricity.
The blackout was caused by breaks of electro-transmission lines.
The south of Sakhalin remains affected by the cyclone, but bulldozers and graders have already cleared the roads from Yuzno-Sakhalinsk to the cities of Korsakov and Dolinsk, the press service of the Russian Emergencies Ministry's regional department said.
The city of Nevelsk remains blocked for transport. About 20 kilometres of the road to the city lie through the mountain pass that is covered with snow. Traffic is also impeded from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to the port of Kholmsk.
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk airport is returning to normal work after the snowstorm. The runway is already cleared of snow. Work is under way to clear the taxi strips and other airport areas. The airport is closed till 14:00 local time (07:00 Moscow time).
The ferry service between Vanino and Kholmsk in the Tatar Strait, the north of the Sea of Japan, does not work either. The storm continues in the strait, and the ferries wait in the port of Vanino.
The cyclone is moving from Sakhalin to the Kuril Islands. The wind speed reaches 35 m/sec.
The powerful cyclone that raged over Japan and Sakhalin has hit southern Kamchatka with winds of up to 45 m/sec. Gusts of wind of such power are recorded in the southernmost part of the peninsula in the Cape Lopatka area, the Kamchatka meteorological service told Itar-Tass.
There is no heavy precipitation after the cyclone lost some strength over Sakhalin.
Nevertheless, the local anti-avalanche centre has warned about avalanche danger in the mountains. Slopes of mountains and volcanoes will remain dangerous in the Yelizovo, Ust-Kamchatsk and Milkovo districts from March 4 to 6.
Tourists, hunters and travelers should not set out for mountain routes, the centre said.
Organizations that operate in the mountainous areas are recommended to take measures for personnel safety.
The Kamchatka Hydro-Meteorological Centre also issued a storm warning for the south of the Bering Sea, the northwest of the Pacific and areas near the central and eastern Aleutian Islands, where a storm with eight-ten-metre waves is expected on March 3.
There have been no reports about emergencies or disruption of the work of life-support systems in Kamchatka residential areas.
Air service between the peninsula and the mainland is not halted. All the flights are carried out according to schedule, the traffic control service at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky's Yelizovo airport said.