Post-storm silence has taken over Tērvete after the devastating storm. Broken trees have fallen over each other, buildings with stripped roofs and walls battered by hailstones are just a few of the visible consequences of the damage.
Residents met by Latvian Radio in Tērvete indicated that such a storm has never been seen before:
“The coop is damaged, the roof is battered by hail, [..] the water goes in, but the cattle are fine, the house is luckily fine.”
“I will say God has stood quite well by us, because we are lucky, so to speak, and we have only two windows broken, and the trees have not fallen on the roofftops or on houses, so I say, we're lucky. The rest can be saved, we can pick up the trees, plant the new trees in place, we have only three days of work, and everything will be fine, but when we look around what has happened, the horrors that neighbors have faced – such damage has been caused that they have been left without roofs, nothing.”
“Tears and snot all over because of worry, could not fall asleep in the evening because of worry. It's really the first time in my life, and I hope the last one.”
“Damage is done to almost every household,” said Māris Berlands, head of the municipality of Tērvete.
"There is very extensive damage in Tērvete, there are basically no places where trees haven't fallen [..]. The Tērvete civil parish management building has been damaged on both the facade and windows, and the trees have fallen, basically the area has been completely wiped out. Yesterday we were working on cleaning roads from trees all day until late evening, by case. Thank God we have survived without victims,” Berlands said.
Due to the great damage to the storm, the Latvian State Forests nature park in Tērvete has also been closed for some time.
The head of the Natural Park Information Center, Lilita Kauste, told Latvian Radio that there had initially been hope of rebuilding the park within a week, but as work started, it became clear that renewal could take up to two weeks.
"The net and Tarzan park is indeed permanently damaged at the moment, and it will no longer be possible to build something new next year, because there are simply no more trees, but we are ready to offer another part of the park to this collaborative partner. As for the historic park, [..] we very, very much hope that we will save the park and it will still be available to visitors," said Kauste.
