Flooding in Romania

Flooding and land slides have affected several counties in south-western Romania.

România Internațional, 16.09.2014, 13:32

Romanian authorities are on alert in the counties of Timis, Caras-Severin and Mehedinti, in the west and south-west, areas that have been under code orange warning for flooding over the past few days. The heavy rain has caused significant material damage and has put people in danger. Hundreds of fire-fighters, gendarmes and other intervention forces have intervened in the affected areas, to remove the effects of flooding. In Mehedinti county, waters have wreaked havoc with 150 l of water per square meter falling every day. Water has got into households, caused landslides and isolated several villages along the Danube. County roads and sections of national roads have been blocked and drivers have been forced to wait for hours for the traffic to resume.

One particularly difficult situation has been reported in Eselnita, where 1000 people were completely isolated, with no electricity, after the water had flooded the national road and broken a dam that was linking the village to the town of Orsova, which is also under the water. Road traffic has been blocked after the roads were covered in mud, and the buildings of many public institutions have been flooded too. Also in Orsova, authorities intervened to evacuate 67 pupils from a school, and also to save 20 tourists stranded on a pier. In the town of Caras –Severin it has rained heavily too and the water flowing from the mountains has damaged several villages. The water-mill park in Rudaria, the largest of this type in Europe, which is part of the UNESCO heritage, is in great danger. According to the local officials, 2 of the mills have already been seriously damaged. Flooding and land slides have also hampered rail-road traffic. Several trains have been cancelled, some routes have been changed and many trains have reached their destinations late.

Unfortunately, the news is not good for the coming days either. Hydrologists have extended the code orange warning for flooding until Wednesday afternoon, for many rivers in the counties of Timis and Caras Severin. Not only the south-west of Romania has been affected, but also neighboring Serbia and Croatia. In Serbia, the most damaged is the east, while in Croatia, the centre of the country is in the most difficult situation. This is the second wave of flooding hitting Serbia after the one in May, which made lots of victims and caused material damage of 1.5-2 billion Euros.