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What the South Moravia tornado left behind
Summary
A retrospective on the tornado that struck southeastern Czechia on 24 June 2021, and on the sanctions imposed on Belarus three days earlier.
What did a single tornado do to southeastern Czechia? On 24 June 2021, a rare and powerful tornado passed through several villages in South Moravia, causing catastrophic damage. Five people were killed and 150 others were injured.
The village of Hrušky was among the worst hit. Its mayor said much of it had been destroyed.
The regional dimension of the disaster was visible quickly. Rescue teams from neighbouring Austria and Slovakia were deployed to the affected area, a sign that the scale of the damage went beyond what local responders alone could handle.
A separate regional track
Elsewhere in the region's news, on 21 June 2021 the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom imposed sanctions against Belarus. The measures were a response to the diversion of Ryanair Flight 4978 the previous month, which led to the arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich.
The two stories were unrelated. Taken together, they show the range of what the region faced in the final days of June 2021: a natural disaster that prompted cross-border rescue help, and a diplomatic confrontation in which three Western governments acted in concert over an incident involving a civilian flight.
