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Urban flooding: Tapas restaurant floods on Helsinki's Bulevardi
🇫🇮 Finland /Disasters & Emergencies

Urban flooding: Tapas restaurant floods on Helsinki's Bulevardi

From Helsingin Sanomat · () Finnish

Translated from Finnish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Heavy rainfall caused multiple flood-related incidents in Helsinki on Sunday, leading the rescue services to implement a "congestion model" to manage responses.
  • Several properties, including a restaurant on Bulevardi, experienced water damage, with customers evacuated from the restaurant due to flooding.
  • The city's drainage systems are overwhelmed by the intense rain, causing streets to flood in areas like Esplanadi and South Helsinki.

Helsinki experienced significant disruptions on Sunday as heavy rainfall triggered numerous flood-related incidents, prompting the Helsinki Rescue Department to activate a "congestion model" to efficiently deploy resources. The department reported handling over 10 such tasks throughout the day.

"The tasks have been similar in nature. Water has entered buildings and flowed into basement areas," stated duty fire chief Vesa Paatelma. One notable incident occurred on Bulevardi, where the restaurant Pincho Nation had to be evacuated. Customers were forced to leave as water flooded the establishment, and rescue services worked to pump the water out from the floor.

The tasks have been similar in nature. Water has entered buildings and flowed into basement areas.

— Vesa PaatelmaDuty fire chief describing the commonality of the flood-related incidents.

Flooding also affected streets in various parts of the city, including Esplanadi and South Helsinki. Paatelma explained the cause: "The sewers cannot handle the large amount of water coming from the sky." This indicates that the city's drainage infrastructure is struggling to cope with the intensity of the downpour.

The heavy rains also caused damage on Saturday. The Viikki Library suffered extensive water damage when a rainwater sewer connection failed. Additionally, the shopping center Grani in Kauniainen and a service building in Espoo were impacted by flooding on Saturday, highlighting a broader issue of weather-related infrastructure strain in the capital region.

The sewers cannot handle the large amount of water coming from the sky.

— Vesa PaatelmaDuty fire chief explaining the reason for the street flooding.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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