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Power supply lost to thousands as icy cyclone hits central Russia and Far East

EMERCOM: throughout the day power supply has been cut to six territories; a total of 1,600 settlements populated by more than 93,000 are in blackout

MOSCOW, November 26, 16:31 /ITAR-TASS/. An icy cyclone which brought heavy precipitation and strong winds has hit eight territories in the Central Federal District and in the Russian Far East; power supply has been paralyzed to thousands of people there, said Chief of the EMERCOM national center for managing crisis situations Viktor Yatsutsenko.

Throughout the day power supply has been cut to six territories; a total of 1,600 settlements populated by more than 93,000 are in blackout, he said.

In the Far East, power supply has been restored, while in the Smolensk, Yaroslavl, Tver and Kostroma regions there is no power supply yet to 1,500 settlements populated by more than 76,000. Emergency repairs are to be complete by the end of the day, Yatsutsenko told the EMERCOM emergency conference.

The Smolensk and Kostroma regions worst hit by the cyclone have reported the biggest number of territories where power supply was cut off. The number of people left without electricity supply has been growing there, a representative of the Energy Ministry said on Tuesday.

Repair and operational teams of the head EMERCOM department are continuing clean- up operations on the affected territories. Traffic remains partly restricted on a number of federal motorways in the Jewish autonomous Republic, in the Khabarovsk and in the Maritime regions.

More than 21,000 people and 5,000 machinery units have been involved in clean-up operations in Central Russia and in the Russian Far East. The Russian weather service has warned that the cyclone will continue for 24 more hours.