Rainy summer in Romania

The recent severe weather in Romania has sparked off problems

Mihai Pelin, 11.06.2019, 13:55

Floods, heavy rainfalls,
hailstorms, gales and storms continue in Romania. Hydrological and weather forecasts,
yellow and orange warnings about unsettled weather and floods across the
country have been reported for weeks and don’t seem to end. Orange or yellow
warnings or even red warnings have been given for a lot of rivers almost
throughout the country, flash floods and increasing flows and levels risking to
occur. The level of the Danube is also on the rise, several warnings being
given for the next few days. There are also a number of problems related to
defense dams but officials give assurances that for now the situation is under
control. The authorities recommend to the population in the targeted areas not
to cross the rivers through the water and not to come close to their banks.
Moreover, people should clean the gutters next to their houses for facilitating
the draining of water and avoiding its accumulation in households. In the last
24 hours, unsettled weather with heavy rainfalls and gales has triggered small
problems in several counties; however, they have not seriously affected the respective
communities and no flash floods have jeopardized the citizens, as it happened
last week.

Fire fighters have evacuated the water from over 200 houses, cellars
and yards. Moreover, because of the gales, some roofs have collapsed and
several trees have fallen on the pavement. Fortunately, no casualties have been
reported. The teams of the Inspectorates for Emergency Situations have not
carried out intervention missions; they have only assessed the damage caused by
the recent floods. Depending on the field situation, rescue teams are ready to
take immediate action with big capacity motor pumps in order to evacuate water
from the houses and save the people caught in the flash floods by rescue boats.
Power cuts have been reported in the central Harghita county and the
north-eastern Iasi County. In the last few days, heavy rainfalls have been
reported almost all over Romania and the level of rivers and brooks has gone
up. Bridges, houses, outhouses, gardens and cellars have been flooded. Hundreds
of people have been evacuated by fire fighters. Crops have been affected and in
most cases, farmers don’t have an insurance policy for that kind of damage.
Hundreds of animals have been washed away. Road traffic has been disrupted,
county, national and European roads being blocked by flash floods. The
situation doesn’t seem to go back to normal in the coming period,
meteorologists announcing heavy rainfalls, gales and hailstorms.

(Translated by A.M. Palcu)