Night of Chaos: Over 9,000 Calls to 112, 117 Smashed Vehicles and 189 Fallen Trees — and Forecasters Warn the Storm Is Coming Back
The storm that hit Skopje damaged the airport, the Prosecutor's Office and Vila Vodno, while patients in Shtip were relocated after the hospital roof leaked.
The violent storm that swept Skopje and much of the country on Monday afternoon and evening left chaos on a scale the capital has not seen in years. The Crisis Management Center (CMC) reported that over 9,000 calls came in to the 112 emergency number, more than 8,300 of them between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. alone.
According to the Interior Ministry's tally as of 10 p.m., in the Skopje area alone 117 vehicles and 35 roofs were damaged, 189 trees and 7 traffic lights were knocked down, and 5 fires were recorded. Ten citizens were injured, and 11 patients were admitted to the Emergency Surgical Center, three of them with serious injuries.
Key institutions were not spared either. The roof of Skopje airport leaked, halting departures for about an hour and a half. The buildings of the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office, the Vila Vodno complex, the Nova Makedonija building, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts were also damaged.
'Even at this moment there is still an increased intensity of calls from citizens, and all received reports are continuously processed and forwarded to the competent institutions and services,' said CMC Director Muhamed Ali at the height of the crisis.
The storm also struck Shtip with full force, where strong winds damaged part of the roof of the Clinical Hospital. Between 15 and 20 patients were moved from the orthopedics ward. 'The patients are accommodated in the part where it is dry and where there is no leaking. During the night we will look at transferring some of them to other departments so they are safe and the functioning of the hospital is not disrupted,' Mayor Ivan Jordanov said at an emergency press conference.
Damage was also reported in Kumanovo, Veles, Tetovo and Strumica, where public utility crews worked through the night clearing fallen trees and restoring power.
The danger, unfortunately, has not passed. The national weather service warns that local instability with torrential rain, thunder, strong winds and conditions for isolated hailstorms is expected again today. Citizens are advised not to linger under trees or temporary structures and to follow official announcements.
