The Thursday storm over the reserve, located near the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, surprised the officers of the Lithuanian state Border Guard Service (VSAT), who in patrolled regions had to look for shelter. According to the service in social media, the winds were so strong that healthy trees broke under their pressure “like matches”.
Vsat Giedrius Mišutis spokesman reported to local media that despite the scale of the element – a storm, among others She bending the mirrors in service vehicles – the border monitoring system did not suffer serious faults. Officers patrolling the area also avoided injuries.
The Dzukian National Park, where the Čepkeliai reserve lies, on Friday began to remove the effects of hurricane winds. The park's director emphasized that no economic activities are carried out in this area, and only one road used by the Border Guard runs through the forest.
Cleaning the area, however, turned out to be a challenge – the reserve is in the border zone, which prevents the use of drones to estimate the full scale of losses.
