On November 19, 2004, the Slovak Tatras were hit by a devastating storm that devastated over 12,000 hectares of forests and claimed two lives. The wind, which in gusts reached a speed of over 190 kilometers per hour, changed a number of places in the highest Slovak mountains beyond recognition.
The calamity, which in addition to the High and Low Tatras also affected the forests of Orava and the Slovak Ore Mountains, was caused by a low-pressure area passing through the territory of Slovakia. It was she who brought the influx of arctic air, accompanied by a strong wind.
In the High Tatras region, the strongest gusts of wind were recorded between four and seven o’clock in the afternoon. The storm ravaged approximately 12,600 hectares of forests in the Tatra National Park (TANAP) (about a quarter of the total forest area) and left behind a fifty-kilometer strip of uprooted trees, damaged roads, tracks, lines and houses. Experts estimated the total amount of wood from uprooted and broken trees at approximately five and a half million cubic meters.
In addition to material damage, estimated at 8.7 billion Slovak crowns, the vagaries of the weather also claimed two human lives. The first victim was a 49-year-old man whose car was hit by a tree. The second was a Czech tourist who was apparently blown off a slope in the Low Tatras by the wind.
The planting of new forest stands was symbolically started at the end of April 2005 by the then Slovak Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda. A new forest has been planted on part of the affected area, and hundreds of hectares of land are slowly being regenerated naturally.
Source: www.tyden.cz
