Climate change, direct and indirect effects
Bucharest has been hit by a storm that experts say happens once in a hundred years
Bogdan Matei, 10.06.2025, 13:50
On Monday Bucharest was hit by one of the heaviest rainfalls in its history. The company in charge of Bucharest’s sewerage, Apa Nova, says that such a phenomenon happens once in 100 years. Showers lasted only a couple of hours, but the quantity of water exceeded 43 liters on the square meter and even 120 in some areas. Due to the bad weather, the TAROM flight from Paris and the private Eurowings flight from Stuttgart, which were supposed to touch down on Henry Coanda airport in Bucharest, were diverted to Constanta, in south-eastern Romania. According to the National Airport Company, the TAROM flight to Bucharest from Cluj was diverted to Craiova in the south-west. Several other take-offs from Bucharest were delayed.
Traffic on a motorway section was temporarily stopped, while scores of trees fell in the street and on parked cars. The storm blocked traffic on several major roads and destroyed electricity lines. One of the oldest and most famous malls in Bucharest was flooded and customers were striving to avoid the huge puddles of water formed on the corridors.
According to the Department for Emergency Situations, over eight hundred emergency calls were registered, but no victims were reported. The Apa Nova emergency teams promptly intervened to evacuate the water accumulated in several vital points around the city.
However, the ordeal of the employees at the salt mine in Praid, central Romania, continues. We recall that the famous mine had been affected by a small river, Corund, which had never threatened the salt mine before. A modern technology aimed at deviating the river has been proposed by Romanian and foreign experts. The Prefect’s Office of the Harghita County has announced the technical details are to be established at a joint session, which is to bring together experts from several departments, designers, representatives of the construction company, hydrologists and representatives of the company in charge of the exploitation of the aforementioned salt mine, SALROM. The risk of a massive collapse has prompted authorities to resort to the evacuation of several households in the area. The miners have been left without work but they will continue to get their salaries until the end of the year. The salt mine’s tourist area was also closed down and the restaurants and guest houses in the area are currently facing the specter of bankruptcy. Due to the high degree of salinity of one of river Corund’s tributaries, the residents have been advised not to drink tap water. The state of alert at Praid has been extended for another 30 days.
(bill)
