Debrecen4U July 10, 2025

Community collaboration for the recovery of storm damage in Debrecen

In addition to disaster management, police, ambulance, electricity supply specialists, and office staff, numerous organisations and volunteers are participating in the restoration of damage caused by the stormy weather of the past few days.

A press conference about the works was held on July 9, 2025, at one of the locations affected by the storm, on Homok Street.

Mayor László Papp said at the beginning of the press conference, “Like the rest of the country, Debrecen was hit by a powerful storm, but you can’t prepare for extraordinary situations, winds of 130 km/h that can uproot deciduous trees and break concrete, light poles. Last year, we carried out tree felling and branch removal in 3,200 locations in the city, and so far this year, we have done so at nearly 1,600 locations. Due to the storm damage, we will probably be cutting down trees and pruning branches in more places than last year, and the local government is providing adequate resources for this purpose. Of course, we will do our job; we will do our task. Still, we cannot prepare for extraordinary situations, but even in this situation, the city was characterised by close and serious cooperation.”

The mayor thanked the disaster management team, office staff, and private and civil organisations that participated in the rescue work and, at the same time, asked for the patience of the population until the restoration work was completed.

He explained that nearly 450 people are working on the restoration project from Opus Titász Zrt. The company is expected to complete the restoration of the medium-voltage system by this afternoon. This opens the possibility of restoring the low-voltage system, which means that the work to restore public services will take place in the coming days. He added that so far, nearly 400 locations have been reported to the local government, where office staff have gone to the site and carried out restoration and damage relief. He noted that 250 of the 400 locations have already been completed, and the restoration will take place in the remaining locations in the next one or two days.

“Last night, I agreed with Lieutenant General Gábor Böröndi, the Chief of Staff, that the Armed Forces should also assist in the work of disaster management,” László Papp said.

During the storms, numerous broken branches and fallen trees caused significant damage. László Papp drew attention to the fact that the local government has created a reporting platform for the public to report these damage events. Reports can be made at the e-mail address viharkar@ph.debrecen.hu.

According to Deputy Mayor Diána Széles, although people have been paying attention to the weather forecasts in recent days, no one was prepared for such storms. It is a good feeling to see that people are coming together to repair the damage in a way typical of the citizens of Debrecen, a caring city: they fix what they can themselves, and otherwise, they help firefighters working on more complex and challenging tasks with just a glass of water, tea, or a snack. 

Those who are more impatient should understand that the most critical damage control work must be done first, for example, ensuring that the ambulances can get out and then the public areas can be cleaned up.

Speaking of the ambulances, Diána Széles said that, fortunately, there were no deaths in Debrecen as a result of the storms. In this respect, the ambulances did not have any different days than the others.

In addition to thanking the official organisations working on the damage control and the disaster management staff, the deputy mayor thanked the volunteers, including the rescue service of the Hungarian Reformed Charity Service. She drew attention to the fact that anyone who needs help with the storm damage can also notify the municipal representative of their area of ​​residence. Anyone who works from a home office and does not have access to electricity at home can charge their work-related devices at the Family and Child Welfare Centre.

“In the past few days, our operations management has received nearly 2,000 damage reports from Hajdú-Bihar County, of which 1,400 are still being resolved, so we still have a lot of work to do,” director of the Hajdú-Bihar County Disaster Management Directorate, Károly Gerebenics, emphasised. In addition to strengthening our on-call service and assigning additional personnel to the intervention staff, we have established an operational team within the county directorate to coordinate the resolution of damage cases.

The fire brigade colonel stated that, as of today, they will implement a 24/7 service schedule, which enables the deployment of more operational firefighters simultaneously at various locations. He noted that they received reinforcements from the Disaster Management Education Centre, so 44 graduating non-commissioned officers were transferred to Debrecen, who began tasks related to damage elimination. “Currently, about 200 professional firefighters are performing interventions in the county, and in addition, numerous local government fire departments, volunteer fire associations, and volunteer rescue organisations are also assisting this work in large numbers and performing damage elimination tasks,” he added. Károly Gerebenics thanked all those who have been working hard in recent days and are currently working to repair the damage as soon as possible for their selfless and exemplary work.

Member of the research and rescue group of the Hungarian Reformed Charity Service, Ilka Kovács, highlighted that a massive collaboration is underway, as part of which many volunteers and civil organisations have joined forces to assist both the city and the local government, as well as support disaster management efforts. She added that the search and rescue team of the Hungarian Reformed Charity Service and the volunteer fire brigade have been assisting the disaster management team since Monday afternoon. “Our team also includes several professional firefighters who, in addition to performing their duties, are also continuously helping to resolve the situation as volunteer firefighters,” Ilka Kovács underlined.

Source and photo credit:debrecen.hu