Murmansk Mother Describes Survival Amid Power Outage
Residents are struggling with cold and uncertainty due to the ongoing power outages.
On the evening of January 23, a large-scale power outage hit Murmansk and Severomorsk — due to the collapse of power line supports. Despite authorities« claims that most of the network has been restored, many areas still lack stable electricity, heating, and hot water.
A 51.RU reader shared her experience with us. According to her, daily life in the city now more resembles a survival mode.
«There is no schedule for electricity supply. People only talk about it — supposedly it exists, but no one has seen it,» our interlocutor said.
She notes that in the Leninsky District, the presence of gas slightly eases daily life, but it does not solve the problem of cold.
«Yes, there is gas, cooking is easier. But many have no heating or hot water. Even if the light comes on, it doesn»t mean the house gets warm,« she says.
According to the woman, in her building, heating and hot water were absent for a full day; now they have been restored, but the situation remains difficult for her neighbors. Due to constant outages, the family is hardly at home: with a small child, she is forced to go to her father«s place, to a hotel. There, she spends days at the reception.
Additional difficulties are caused by non-working elevators — the child has to be carried in arms from the eighth floor. Even when electricity briefly returns, using elevators is scary: due to sudden blackouts, people have already been stuck in them for half a day.
The hardest thing, the woman emphasizes, is the complete uncertainty. In winter conditions and frost, people need clear and honest information: when and where the light will appear, on what schedule the networks will operate. Instead, residents see reports about «90 percent of restored networks,» which, in her opinion, do not reflect the real picture.
Without stable electricity supply and heating, she says, extensive territories remain affected: the Leninsky District, Karl Marx Street, Severny Proyezd, almost all of Gora, Roslyakovo, as well as Severomorsk. Moreover, the electricity supply appears uneven — somewhere light is given during the day, somewhere only at night.
The accident has also affected city life as a whole. Public transport is operating unstable — trolleybuses are breaking down. Schools and kindergartens have switched to different work modes: some institutions are working remotely, some — in-person.
Now, the northern woman notes, all current information about what is happening is mainly transmitted by the residents themselves — through chats and social networks. Clear and understandable forecasts from official sources have not been received by people.
