Flooding in Romania causes death toll, evictions; damages to reach 0.6% of GDP

Flooding has caused a death toll of 19 in Romania so far, with other nine people gone missing, after as many as 28 counties in the country were affected by heavy rain. The flooding is expected to cause damages higher than 0.6 percent of the Romanian GDP, according to Interior Minister Vasile Blaga, who said the country will use the EU solidarity fund for help. Besides the death toll caused by the flood, Romania will also suffer losses due to damages to the crops, and expects the wheat crop to be drastically reduced this year. Romania is not the only country in the Balkan region which is suffering from floods. Bosnia, croatia and Serbia were also affected The most affected counties are in the North of the country, in the Moldova area: Suceava, Iasi, Botosani, Bacau, where in many localities families were evicted. Siret, a river which crosses the Eastern part of Romania and flows into the Danube near Galati, is expected to overflow in Iasi county on Wednesday morning. 4,500 people near Iasi and close to Siret have been already evicted. The Interior Ministry has called in warnings for Iasi, Suceava and Neamt counties, so that people in Pascani and Roman cities and from 20 rurual localities can be evicted. Areas in Moldova have a red and orange code, while certain areas in Transylvania, like Harghita, Mures, Alba, Sibiu, Valcea and Olt have received a yellow code for flooding.