Efforts to Counter the Effects of Flooding
Several counties in southern and southwestern Romania were seriously hit by flooding in the past few days. Heavy downpours and storms caused significant damage and authorities are now trying to keep things under control.
Mihai Pelin, 31.07.2014, 13:59
The torrential rain that affected southern and southwestern Romania in the past few days caused a lot of damage and made victims among the locals. The counties of Valcea, Teleorman, Olt and Arges were the most affected ones. The heavy rainfalls led to several rivers bursting their banks.
Over two thousand houses and households, in two hundred towns and villages have been affected and thousands of hectares of farmland have been swept by waters. Over one thousand people have been evacuated. Road traffic has been disrupted, several segments of national, county and village roads have been completely destroyed and tens of bridges have disappeared, swept by the waters.
Strong winds have downed electricity poles and power lines causing outages. Fire fighters, intervention teams and gendarmes have been deployed to the flood-stricken regions, to rescue people and evacuate water from households. Local and central authorities are on the alert and measures have been taken to warn people in the areas exposed to flooding. Evacuation routes, potential shelters and areas where first aid can be granted to people in need have been identified.
Experts with the Romanian National Waters Authority have tried to explain the flood waves by a rapid increase in the rivers’ water level. The water flow on some rivers increased up to 400 times. Nevertheless, flooding has also occurred in areas previously seen as safe. In the county of Arges, one of the most affected so far, the Romanian National Waters Authority has drawn up, this year, flood risk maps worth tens of millions of euros, which specified there was no danger of flooding.
Experts couldn’t have been more wrong! No wonder the head of the Waters Authority submitted his resignation. He was vacationing while almost half of the country was struggling with waters. Deputy Prime Minister Liviu Dragnea has announced an investigation into the Waters Authority’s activity, unsatisfied with the way in which protection dams have been erected or consolidated in the past few years.
For the time being, he has called on local authorities in southern Romania to stay on alert. In Bucharest, the central command for emergency situations is also on high alert, waiting for the local authorities’ signal to assist where needed. Unfortunately, meteorologists warn of further bad weather in the next few days, until August 1st at least.
