Hundreds of houses along Danube flooded
The rising Danube flooded hundreds of homes in Serbia and Bulgaria today and threatened production at one of the Balkan’s biggest power plants.
The Djerdap hydroelectric plant, located on the Danube in eastern Serbia, could be partly shut down if the river rises above the dam, Serbian state television said.
Power production at the plant is already reported to be at one of its lowest levels because of the flooding.
Swollen by the melting spring snow and heavy rains, the Danube has reached record highs in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria in the past several days, threatening towns, villages and farmland.
More floodwaters advancing along the river, one of Europe’s longest, were expected to hit the region over the weekend.
In north-western Bulgaria, the Danube flooded a park around the medieval Vida fortress in the town of Vidin, near the Serbian border.
Nearby, in the town of Lom, the swelling river submerged the port and hundreds of homes in surrounding villages. Two other major ports, in Ruse and Silistra, were partially submerged, the country’s civil defence agency said.
In Serbia, the waters flooded a railway station and a medieval fortress in the town of Smederevo, about 30 miles east of Belgrade.
In lower sections of the Serbian capital, streets were submerged. In northern Serbia, the Danube tributaries of Tisa and Tamis were pushing floodwaters into several towns, preventing students from getting to school, blocking roads and submerging farms.
Soldiers and police joined residents of flood-hit areas in shoring up river banks with sandbags.
Hundreds of homes were flooded overnight in eastern Serbia. In several places, residents were left without water, electricity or working telephone lines.
People rushed to evacuate animals and personal belongings before leaving their homes, state television reported.
In Romania, authorities carried out controlled flooding to divert the water from populated areas, inundating tens of thousands of acres of farmland.
