Snow calamity has hit the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is currently experiencing what the Czechs call a snow calamity - the worst in the last fifteen years. On Wednesday, there was a hurricane in the Krkonose or Giant Mountains, blowing at the speed of 140 kilometres per hour. Alena Skodova reports:

Roads on a third of the Czech Republic's territory are impassable and trains on some minor routes are trapped in snow drifts up to their roofs. Children in the Teplice region in Northern Bohemia have their Christmas holidays prolonged, because they simply cannot make it to school. Some 150 inhabitants of the Moldava village in Krusne Mountains were cut off from the rest of the world on Wednesday - they received no mail and local buses didn't run. Even the main motorway from Prague to the country's second largest city of Brno had to be cleared every hour, and there were long tailbacks.

In Eastern Bohemia fallen trees damaged electric cables and dozens of households were without electricity - the work of repairmen was hampered by the snow.

I spoke with an owner of a mountain chalet in Zelezna Ruda in the Sumava mountain range bordering with Germany, Jaromir Dusek. Mr. Dusek said the main problem was a lack of parking space.

Mr. Dusek told me there was not enough parking space, because road crews were unable to clear snow from the roads. But it seems this did not prevent mountains holiday-makers from coming to Sumava. The town itself succeeded in clearing more remote areas and creating areas where cars could be parked with the help of tractors and bulldozers, Mr. Dusek told me. And although after the Christmas holidays Zelezna Ruda will be relatively calm, they expect a new influx of skiers during the school holidays at the beginning of February, when the place is usually jammed.

Ondrej Novak is enjoying his holidays in the Jizerske Mountains in Northern Bohemia:

"Today it's quite OK but yesterday was a very strong wind, it was very difficult for cars to run and they say one third of the roads are like this."

How was your journey to the mountains?

"It was more than a week ago, so it was a better situation than now, and fortunately we did not go by car, we came by bus, it's probably better because we are not so scared."

Is it snowing now?

"No, it's not, actually it's a very nice weather today, it's cold but it's sunny."

And what's the temperature?

"It's around -11 degrees Celsius."

Do you think a weather like this can prevent people from going to the mountains?

"Well, I don't think so, there are many people here in fact. I'm not sure if they will come today or tomorrow, but quite a lot of people came a week ago or three days ago, and I think they are going to stay."

You are based in Liberec, which is the regional town of the Jizerske mountains, what's the situation in town?

"In town it's very different from the mountains, you can go by car everywhere here. There's lots of snow, but not on the roads."