According to the Minister of Interior, those who were personally involved in the extreme weather situation in mid March rated the rescue operations as good or outstanding. Minister Pintér spoke about the issue in front of the Defence and Internal Security Committee on Tuesday.

The Committee discussed the report of the Ministry of Interior concerning the extreme weather conditions and the actions taken to re-establish order. Minister Pintér mentioned that the severe weather that also reached many other European countries had the most serious effects in Hungary. Nevertheless, isolated towns and villages were freed, roads were made passable and the power supply was re-established extremely rapidly and efficiently.  The Minister emphasized that energy supplier EON Ltd. and the Italian embassy had both issued complimentary letters regarding the rescue efforts.

Minister Pintér also conducted a survey that concentrated on the citizens’ evaluation of the rescue operations. He mentioned that the best result was recorded in Hajdú-Bihar County, where almost 54 thousand people were affected by the blackouts, and 76 percent of people found the handling of the situation either good or outstanding. The worst, medium result was recorded in Budapest.

The Minister emphasized that apart from the first traffic accidents nobody was hurt or was caught up in a situation that could not be handled, and nobody's life was endangered. The Emergency Services' new management system did well – he emphasized.

On 14 March due to intense snowfall and extremely strong winds, several roads, including motorways became impassable. Minister Pintér said that according to their data chart 146 towns and villages were cut off, 292 roads were closed by the snow, more than 14 thousand people got stuck in their cars, more than 318 thousand households were left without electricity and more than 89 thousand households without water. The former problem was solved within a maximum of 78 hours, the latter in no more than 32 hours –the Minister emphasized.

(Ministry of Interior)