Storm cut off Sakhalin from the continent

A storm in Tatar Strait on Thursday interrupted the operation of the sea ferryboat crossing between Sakhalin and the continent (between Kholmsk on Sakhalin and Vanino port on the continental coast of the Khabarovsk Territory).

As officials of the Sakhalin Sea Shipping Line said, all the four ferryboats are staying at Vanino and Sovetskaya Gavan (Vanino's stand-by) ports waiting for weather to improve. The speed of the gushes of wind is 25 metres a second, and the waves in the Strait sometimes reaches the height of 4-5 metres.

On the island's western coast adjoining the Strait the gushes of wind reach 22 metres a second, and fails in electricity supply emerged in a number of populated areas of the Kholmsk district because of the tangle of the wires of power transmission lines.