Natural catastrophes

19.4, floods, property damage

Central Europe: approximately €40mn in damage resulted from the record floods in Serbia. Over 240,000 hectares of farm land were flooded. The state of emergency and flood defence measures would remain in force until swollen waters recede, a process that might take three to four weeks. The Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and Water Economy issued a public warning of possible new floods along the Tisa River as its water level continued to rise on the section from Novi Becej up to the Hungarian border. Water levels in all other rivers in Serbia have stabilised for the first time in a week. Seven thousand Romanians were evacuated after a dam on the River Danube was breached, raising the danger the swollen river would submerge their low-lying villages. Rescue teams worked round the clock to mend the dam. The Danube remains at its highest level in more than a century in the Balkans, but heavy rains and melting snow were expected to further swell Europe’s second-largest river. Around 4,700 people were evacuated in the Black Sea state, mostly in southern Dolj county and roughly 600 houses were flooded and 170 destroyed. More than 31,000 hectares in southern Romania, a fertile region for wheat and maize farming, were underwater and officials said they would continue to submerge farmland to help protect populated areas in the east.