“The old woman went out on the balcony to have a smoke only to be swept away. She was hospitalized with multiple injuries,” a source at the hospital in Uglegorsk told RIA.
According to local media reports, the 70-year-old lady was lucky enough to land on a fresh snowdrift below. Because deep snow prevented the ambulance from reaching the house, she had to be taken to hospital inside the bucket of a construction loader that happened to be nearby.
The incident left the woman with a broken arm and three broken ribs and a concussion.
Sakhalin Island has been pummeled by a powerful cyclone packing winds of up to 40 meters a second (93 miles an hour) for two days now.
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The local ferry line has been closed and the airport in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is operating according to current and forecasted weather information.
Gale-force winds have swept off the roofs of many apartment houses, a local daycare centre and blacked out dozens of residential areas.
