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More than 13,000 residents of the Far Eastern island of Sakhalin remain in the cold and dark since Wednesday after two powerful cyclones struck the region and severely damaged power lines.

As of Thursday, a total of 17 towns and communities still suffered from the power outages due to damaged energy supplies, Ria Novosti news agency cited an official spokesman of Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Situations, Viktor Beltsov, as saying.

The cyclones brought heavy snowfalls and strong winds which caused a large amount of damage to electricity lines in Tomarinsky, Kholmsky, Nevelsky, Dolinsky, Uglegorsky and Anivsky counties. A total of 48,379 residents in 36 towns and villages were cut off from electric power.

Snowfalls halted automobile and train traffic. A ferry line linking Kholmsk and the town of Vanino in the Khabarovsk region was also closed, a statement from the Ministry for Emergency Situations said.

Overall, some 900 people and 370 vehicles, as well as road maintenance crews and specialists from the region’s Department for Emergency Situations are currently eliminating the effects of the cyclones, the statement from Ministry said. At the moment, the emergency crews have resumed electricity supplies in 19 towns and villages.

The weather conditions on the island are expected to improve by Saturday, when one of the cyclones will proceed to the Sea of Okhotsk. The second cyclone, with its epicenter currently in the central part of the Kuriles, is drifting towards the Kamchatka peninsula, the statement reported.