Sakhalinsk, February 16, SPA -- Russia's Sakhalin Island has been hit by a powerful snow cyclone with snowstorms, the visibility on local roads is just 0 to 50 meters, Itar-Tass reported. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk airport is closed. The Vanino-Kholmsk ferry service is also not working. A powerful storm is raging in the Tatar Strait in the north of the Sea of Japan along the ferry service route. Traffic has been blocked on automobile roads in the Dolinsky and Tomarinsky districts. Transport traffic is impeded in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, it is difficult for people to walk in the streets. Chief engineer of the Sakhalin region's automobile roads department Nikolai Arefyev said that snow cleaning machines sent to the roads have had to stop on the way due to zero visibility waiting for the cyclone to go. Powerful snowstorms will be affecting the area for another day, the weather will calm down by February 18, the Sakhalin hydrometeorology centre reported.
