At least three people have died after a powerful winter storm swept across Sweden over the weekend.
The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) issued an orange weather warning in Sweden on Saturday, Dec. 27, as hurricane-force winds moved across the northern half of the country, Swedish outlets Dagens Nyheter and TT reported.
Three people were killed amid Storm Johannes on Saturday, according to BBC News. A man in his 50s died after being struck by a tree at the Kungsberget ski resort, the outlet reported, citing local media and police. Two other men died while clearing fallen trees in Härnösand and Hofors, according to Dagens Nyheter and TT. Authorities have not released the victims’ identities.
The storm toppled thousands of trees, triggering widespread power outages and major travel disruption. The Swedish Transport Administration (STA) said it had deployed 100 crews to clear roads, per TT.
“As I understand it, it should be passable in most places within the day. But it may take time to repair game fences and other parts that have been damaged,” Eva Jonsson, an STA press communicator, told the agency. Jonsson added that fully restoring the roads could take up to two weeks.
More than 40,000 homes were left without power across northern and central Sweden. Fallen trees blocked roads and forced the cancellation of numerous train services, according to Dagens Nyheter.
Conditions began to improve by early Sunday, Dec. 28. Some roads reopened by Sunday evening, per the Sweden Herald.
“This is the worst storm we have been hit by, at Ellevio at least, since Gudrun in 2005 and Per in 2007,” Jonatan Björck, a press communicator at Swedish power distributor Ellevio, told TT.
Ellevio shared an update on Facebook on Monday, Dec. 29: “Work to restore power after Storm Johannes is once again underway with full force in Gävleborg since early this morning. During the night, we have gone through all the errors and made a priority and transported up more material to the area.”
“The situation is still very challenging because so many trees have fallen. It hinders both accessibility and work along the power lines, which causes in some places it to take longer than normal to get power back.”
Ellevio added that the number of homes without power had dropped to more than 8,000.
