Snowstorm snarls traffic in Slovenia
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — A snowstorm packing strong winds has wreaked traffic chaos on a key highway and other roads in Slovenia on Monday, while leaving parts of the country temporarily without electricity.
Officials said the late Sunday that snowfall caused more than a dozen traffic accidents overnight with fallen trees blocking local roads and downing power lines, including in the capital Ljubljana.
Authorities urged Slovenians not to travel unless absolutely necessary. Huge lines of cars continued to crawl at a snail’s pace along many roads throughout the country Monday morning because of the bad weather conditions.
The highway connecting the Adriatic coastline with Ljubljana was blocked in some areas because of high winds. Heavy vehicles have been banned on the affected roads in the Alpine nation.
Meteorologists said the snow is expected to ease by today. Strong winds last weekend prompted firefighters to respond to some 200 calls for help in neighboring Croatia.
Snow also disrupted traffic in Croatia on Monday after blanketing parts of the Adriatic coast and some of Croatia’s islands.
Most ferry lines were halted on Monday due to strong winds, leaving the majority of Croatian islands cut off, state HRT television reported.