Floods in Southern Romania cause two deaths, damage crops

Romania’s Hydrology Institute issued a Code Red for flooding warnings for Gorj and Valcea counties in the Southern Romania while the Interior Ministry mobilized 1,600 troops from various institutions to help people who were affected by flooding in ten counties in the center and southern regions of the country. Floods were caused by heavy rains at the beginning of this week. In Valcea, helicopters were sent to help evacuate 40 people from areas that were isolated due to flooding. Hundreds of people were evicted after their homes were flooded or even completely destroyed, and two people died. Several road sections in Gorj county were blocked due to heavy rains, which caused landslides. A passenger train operated by private company Regiotrans derailed in Arges county, because of a bridge that was destroyed by the flooding. The derail caused four injuries. The heavy rain also reduced Romania’s grain crops by 20 to 30 percent and destroyed 40 to 60 percent of the vegetable crops in the southern part of Romania, farmers’ associations said. Some regions were also affected by hail and specialists estimate that this will cause a decline in Romania’s agriculture production. Rivers in the inferior basin of Olt, one of the largest rivers in Romania, recorded record high flows, with a probability to repeat once every 100 years or more, according to Romania’s National Waters’ Administration. These were determined by an extremely high level of precipitations with rainfalls reaching 100 to 180 liters per sqm. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Ministry of Defense Website)