Snow and ice keeps communes blocked

TIRANA, Feb. 22 – Though snow has stopped since last week many communes in northeast continue to be blocked due to meters of snow and ice that hampers normal traffic. Fortunately there has been no other victim from the cold.
It is not clear how many victims there have been in the last month in the country due to the cold snap. Official authorities have kept the figure to one or two dead persons. The local media has a different figure, taking the number of the deaths to 9 or 10.
Officials say that some communes in northeast remained blocked by snow despite continuous work to clear the roads leading to them.
The danger at this moment is from avalanches and the weight of snow on the roofs. In some areas military helicopters evacuated people from isolated areas and also continued to distribute medicine and food.
Authoritiessay they have the situation under control. But the local media refers to many people in remote areas who complain of the lack of total attention from the authorities.
It has been one of the harshest winters recently, some say the harshest since 1985.
The opposition has criticized the government’s management of the emergency, saying that manifest problems have revealed poor administration and weaknesses at local authority level.
Earlier this month Albania declared a state of natural disasterin several areas of the country. Heavy snowfall cut off communities and made many roads impassable.
Limited capacities and coordination issues have hampered the work of emergency crews.
Snow as deep as 4.5 meters isolated areas in the entire region wherehelicopters and army trucks were used to deliver food and medicine, and to transport sick people to hospitals.
Since the end of January, Eastern Europe has been pummeled by a record-breaking cold snap and the heaviest snowfalls in recent memory. Hundreds of people, many of them homeless, have died and tens of thousands of residents have been snowed in across the region.
For the moment authorities call on the people to take good care of their roofs and avoid areas where avalanches are possible.
There is also the fear those meters of snow, or tones of it will create another dangerous situation when they melt.
Temperatures have been relatively lower though it is still cold and icy.
Good news came last week when the government and the World Bank signed the agreement for the additional financing loan for Albania Dam Safety Project, totaling $21.6 million.
The extra loan complements the original loan of US$35.3 million and will help safeguard the three major hydropower plants on the River Drin cascade in order to prevent flooding.
It will also help improve the operational efficiency and enhance the stability of power supply for the regional electricity market, the WB said in a press release.