Romanian emergency crews intervene in numerous localities and 16 counties amid heavy rains

Update: According to official figures, Romanian firefighters intervened in 110 localities across 22 counties and in Bucharest to deal with flooded buildings and yards, as well as 129 fallen trees, following the heavy rains on Wednesday, October 8. They also rescued four people stranded by the waters, three in Constanța and one in Prahova.

“The interventions took place in the counties of Argeș, Bacău, Brașov, Brăila, Buzău, Caraș-Severin, Constanța, Călărași, Dolj, Dâmbovița, Galați, Giurgiu, Ialomița, Iași, Ilfov, Neamț, Olt, Prahova, Teleorman, Tulcea, Vrancea, Vâlcea, and in the municipality of Bucharest,” said the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, or IGSU, in a press release.

Around 40 vehicles were damaged as a result of the storms, and traffic was temporarily affected on national roads DN 1 and DN 6. Activity in the port of Constanta was also temporarily halted. Power supply failures were recorded in 17 localities across the counties of Dâmbovița, Prahova, Vaslui, and Vrancea, affecting approximately 13,100 end consumers who were left without power.

Initial story: Romanian emergency crews intervened in 47 localities across 16 counties and in Bucharest following heavy rains and storms during the night of Tuesday, October 7, to Wednesday, October 8. The red code alert is expected to last until Wednesday afternoon, and orange and yellow codes will be in place until midnight.

In Bucharest and Ilfov county, the number of interventions is increasing by the hour, with dozens of fallen trees and damaged cars, amid the red weather warning for heavy rainfall. In the last 24 hours, firefighters in the capital carried out 38 operations. According to the latest information cited by Digi24, 18 damaged cars and 25 fallen trees have been reported.

According to the Bucharest water authority Apa Nova, the Romanian capital saw 96% of the average monthly precipitation for October in just over 20 hours, laying stress on the city's sewage system.

“The rainfall event was uniformly distributed across Bucharest, and the amount of precipitation led to a peak flow through the sewer system of ~112 m³/s, comparable to the average annual flow of the Prut River (110 m³/s), and a total volume of over 4.9 million m³, representing ~33% of the storage capacity of Lake Morii,” the company added.