Skip to footer

Macedonia declares emergency after flooding kills 21

At least 5,000 people are in urgent need of food and water, Macedonian authorities say, and over 1,000 people have been evacuated from the country's capital.

|
Dragan Perkovski/AP
People carry their belongings fleeing from their flooded houses after an overnight storm at the village of Stajkovci, just east of Skopje, Macedonia, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. The Macedonian capital of Skopje has been hit Saturday night by torrential rain and floods that left at least 17 people dead, six missing and sent 60 others to the hospital.
  • By Konstantin Testorides Associated Press

| Skopje, Macedonia

Macedonia's government declared a state of emergency Sunday in parts of the capital hit by torrential rain and floods that left at least 21 people dead, six missing and dozens injured, authorities said.

Police and army helicopters searched for the missing and evacuated hundreds from the flood zone.

Mayor Koce Trajanovski described the damage as "the worst Skopje has ever seen." He said that the deadly deluge created hazardous rainfall accumulations within only 20 minutes.

"It was like a water bomb has fallen!" he said.

Many witnesses have described that victims drowned after being trapped in their houses when torrents suddenly swept through the area.

The heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorms struck Skopje and its northern suburbs late Saturday. Special police, army units and firefighters were sent to the worst-hit areas as well as the nearby villages of Stajkovci, Cento, Aracinovo and Smiljkovci. 

Government spokesman Aleksandar Gjorgiev told The Associated Press a state of emergency had been declared for two weeks in the most affected areas.

Hundreds of homes and vehicles were destroyed by the floods, roads were impassable and several areas were without electricity. Authorities said more than 1,000 people had been evacuated so far.

Skopje's city council held an emergency session and decided to provide financial help to victims' families, giving 180,000 denars (3,000 euros) to each. Authorities said they will open shelters for people from affected areas.

After a meeting of the National Crisis Management Center, Health Minister Nikola Todorov said many of the injured had fractures and contusions.

Meteorologists said more torrential rain and strong winds were expected later Sunday.

Authorities said at least 5,000 people would need urgently food and water. They urged people to stay at home and to only drink bottled water.

Further north in Croatia, stormy winds have disrupted road and sea traffic at the height of the tourist season.

The state news agency HINA says parts of the main highway connecting the capital of Zagreb with the Adriatic coast remained closed on Sunday. Only cars were allowed down the sections of a highway and a regional road further north near the port of Rijeka.

Disruptions created by the bad weather have created traffic backups, with many tourists trying to reach Croatia's coastal resorts along the Adriatic Sea.

Traffic has been limited on the bridges connecting the islands of Pag and Krk with the coast, while some ferry lines have halted services with the islands of Pag and Rab.

___

Jovana Gec in Belgrade contributed to this report.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Macedonia declares emergency after flooding kills 21
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2016/0807/Macedonia-declares-emergency-after-flooding-kills-21
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe