MOSCOW, March 3 (Itar-Tass) – A strong cyclone, which hit the Sakhalin Island, did not affect the operation of the railway, Deputy Director of the Far Eastern Railway Andrei Vaulin told reporters on Sunday.
“Thanks to the urgent control over the situation, the main task to ensure the safety of the train traffic was fulfilled successfully,” he said. In particular, 13 snowploughs were used on the railway lines Korsakov-Vzmorye, Nevelsk-Ilyinsk, Ilyinsk-Arsentyevka.
Up to 220 railway workers, including senior railway officials, are involved daily in the cleanup of the cyclone. The special machinery was used to bring people to their workplaces in emergency cases. “All avalanche hazardous sections of the railway are under control. Dangerous probable avalanche edges are cut down at accessible places,” the railway authorities said.
The cyclone, which had been raging over Sakhalin for more than a day, finally went away to the Kuriles. The cyclone hit Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Dolinsk, Kholmsk, Korsakov, Nevelsk and Aniva districts. The hurricane winds, which reached 38 metres per second, broke down the electric power lines at many places in the cyclone-stricken settlements.
The emergency service reported that 80 private houses, where about 1,300 people live, remain without power supplies. The power supplies were not cut at socially important facilities. Electric power supplies are planned to restore in the Sakhalin Region by Monday.