Approximately 93% of subscribers are now receiving electricity in central west Turkey’s Isparta province and teams are working hard to provide electricity to the remaining 20,000 households left in the dark for three days after heavy snow caused disruptions at the electricity grid, Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez said on Saturday.
"Heavy snow and a blizzard caused serious damage to energy infrastructure ... initially 113,236 consumers were left without electricity in the province ... units are working in the field to restore energy to the remaining 20,000 users," Dönmez said, according to a report by Turkish news website Habertürk.
Isparta Mayor Şükrü Başdeğirmen said that the electricity will be fully restored as of Sunday night.
Dönmez added that the Special Administration teams, the municipality, Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) teams and energy distribution company officials intervened in the disaster-affected areas and that all transportation roads in the city, including the village roads, are open and the health institutions continue to serve.
Explaining that the works continue with additional personnel and vehicles, even though there are some difficulties due to climate and snow, the minister stated that they have increased the number of personnel by five to six times.
Dönmez informed that they responded to the crisis with 63 sidecars, 37 off-road vehicles, 11 cabin vehicles, three cranes and 19 generators, and added that support personnel and vehicle reinforcements were received from the neighboring regions.
The governor's office in Isparta stated some neighborhoods and villages are still without electricity since the snow started on Thursday but grid maintenance personnel are continuing their work on power transmission lines.
"There is a delay in restoring the power ... as the disruptions in utility poles occurred in a wide area impacting different lines, transportation to the areas is difficult and snow depth is around 1 meter (3.2 feet)," the governor's office said in a statement.
The authorities decided to ban the use of motorbikes and electric scooters since Thursday and halt in-person education in schools for five days in the city of 450,000 people as of Feb. 7, according to a statement on the governor's office website.
The snowfall that started around 5 a.m. local time on Feb. 3 in Isparta continued uninterrupted for 11 hours. The snow stopped around 4 p.m. but started again at night. According to the data of the Isparta Meteorology Regional Directorate, the amount of snowfall per square meter in the city on Thursday and Friday was 83.9 kilograms, which is around 3.3 inches of precipitation.