Rainfall eases in Balkans allowing rescue efforts to begin

Rainfall in Serbia abated today, helping emergency workers begin the muddy cleanup from deadly floods that inundated whole towns and farms and prompted the country to seek worldwide aid in food, medicine and building materials.

Kristalina Georgieva, the European commissioner for humanitarian aid, arrived in Belgrade today to discuss post- disaster assistance and help prepare a request for aid of as much as €1 billion a year, Michael Davenport, the head of the EU delegation to Serbia, said in an interview with state TV broadcaster RTS.

Serbia started European Union accession talks on January 21st.

"The situation is under control" and the state of emergency will be lifted by week's end, premier minister Aleksandar Vucic said. "We have a large number of victims and it will be even greater when the waters retreat."

Serbia declared a state of emergency on May 15th after the worst rainfall since records began to be kept 127 years ago triggered floods leaving 19 dead in the largest former Yugoslav republic, 17 in neighboring Bosnia and two in Croatia. In Serbia alone, more than 30,000 people have been evacuated, the interior ministry said today.

The government declared a three-day mourning through to this Friday for the flood victims.

Costs

The Sava and Danube rivers are expected to rise beyond defense levels in Belgrade this week, according to the Hydrometeorological Service.

The Belgrade authorities and weather forecasters don’t expect the Sava to flood Belgrade, where volunteers piled up sandbags to protect the city.

The “Extra tropical Storm Yvette” also called “Tamara” in the local media, affected isolated regions in Romania, Slovakia and Croatia.

Health Concerns

The Agriculture Ministry warned people from affected areas not to consume the food they grew in flooded fields, and the Public Health Institute urged mothers to breastfeed their babies. The army called on volunteers to help clean and disinfect the affected homes and fields.

“I expect a lot of help from foreign governments, we need a lot of medicine, food, especially baby food and construction materials,” Mr Vucic said during a visit to Obrenovac yesterday. The damage can reach “hundreds of millions of euros if not a billion euros”.

The World Bank will help the government assess the damage in infrastructure and energy and help plan the imports of cement, fuel, construction materials and water-treating chemicals, resident representative Tony Verheijen told RTS broadcaster in an interview today.

Some World Bank loans planned for Serbia may be redirected toward post-catastrophe financing.

Foreign workers from France, the Czech Republic and Germany have been deployed to protect Serbia’s two biggest power plants that generate half of its electricity output, preventing as much as €600 million in damage, “which Serbia could not afford,” Mr Vucic said.

Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria, France, Hungary, Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Italy, the three Baltic states, Norway, Turkey and Azerbaijan are among countries offering assistance, which includes helicopters, water pumps, boats, rescue workers, detergents and water-purification equipment.

Bloomberg