MINSK, 17 January (BelTA) – Belarus’ Housing and Public Utilities Minister Gennady Trubilo shared how prepared Belarusian public utilities and residents were and how they responded to the Ulli cyclone on the air of the ONT TV channel, BelTA has learned.
“First of all, I would like to thank meteorologists of our Belhydromet [the National Center for Hydrometeorology, Radioactive Pollution Control, and Environmental Monitoring]. They warned us in advance, two days before, that a cyclone was approaching and that forces and resources needed to be put on alert. As a result, we introduced a heightened readiness regime at housing and utilities enterprises,” the minister noted.
According to him, in the first 24 hours more than 4,500 units of equipment were deployed, and 20,000 people worked around the clock clearing snow. “By 12:00 on 9 January, about 50% of the street and road network in populated areas had already been cleared, along with bridge structures. The situation was quite worse in courtyards and residential areas. On the first day, about 30% of the courtyards were cleared,” Gennady Trubilo said.
“I want to say that we must give credit to our citizens: after housing and public utilities enterprises began delivering shovels and scrapers to courtyards in the morning so that people could help, residents responded appropriately. They came out, cleared courtyards and driveways, and thus contributed to faster snow removal,” the minister stressed.
“The system coped in the first few days,” he said.
Gennady Trubilo added that efforts are now focused on clearing parking lots, courtyards, and pedestrian pathways. “The task is to clear down to the hard surface, so there is no snow, so people don’t slip and suffer ice-related injuries. Work also continues (not yet fully completed) at bus stops, where snow needs to be removed and driveways widened. This must be done so that our people can move freely. February is still ahead, and it’s unclear what it will bring,” the minister concluded.
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