PRESIDENT DODON DECREES TO MOBILIZE NATIONAL ARMY FOR COMBATING WEATHER DISASTER

On Friday morning, Moldova’s President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Igor Dodon issued a Decree on attracting army subdivisions to mitigating the consequences of the extraordinary snowstorm continuing all over Moldova for nearly two day by now.

The President also called on all non-indifferent citizens to come out and help fight the snow.

According to the Ministry of the Interior’s Civil Defense and Emergencies Service, as of 9 a.m. on Friday, 240 populated areas (mostly villages) were remaining fully or partly de-energized, particularly in central and southern Moldova.

By Friday morning, the number of weather-fallen trees in Chisinau was estimated at the excess of one thousand, and they injured several people. Last night, emergency services made nearly 400 sorties, responding to citizens’ calls, mostly to help cars, buses and other motor vehicles out of snow traps on roads. As a result, dozens of people, including 37 children, were saves from the unprecedented captivity.

This morning, Prime Minister Pavel Filip recommended Moldovan employers to announce April 21 a day off to spare people of the torture of traveling to their jobs and of the risk of accidents and injuries.

At the moment, more than 600 specialized vehicles of the Emergencies Service and 4,100 employees are working in all parts of the country.

In Transnistria, the regional government has cancelled school lessons on Friday, though school administrations are having a usual working day. Kindergartens are functioning in their usual regime, though the number of kids brought to the pre-school institutions is certainly smaller than always.

Bashkan [Governor] of Gagauzia Irina Vlah has announced April 21 as a day off in this southern Moldovan autonomous region, which seems to have suffered from the snow disaster particularly heavily. Many Gagauzia villages are isolated from the world with high snow and are de-energized. Local specialized services are doing their job in a round-the-clock regime.

And in Chisinau, the body of a frozen 58-year-old man was found in the snow in the Ciocana sector last night, who died presumably of overcooling. Forensic experts did not find traces of violence on the body. The police are establishing how the resident of an opposite end of the city could get to Ciocana late at night in such a nasty weather.