Heavy torrential rains that have battered Slovenia since Thursday have led to flooding that has killed three people. On Saturday, Prime Minister Robert Golob called the situation “the worst natural disaster” in three decades. Cleanup and rescue operations are underway, and with a gradual improvement in the weather, it is now possible to assess the damage, which is considerable.
According to Mr. Golob, the damage is estimated at more than half a billion euros. “This is the worst natural disaster in Slovenia’s recent history, two-thirds of the country is affected,” Golob said after convening the National Security Council.
With the sudden rise in water and landslides caused by the rain, large areas of the center and north of the country are submerged, access to villages cut off and road traffic disrupted. At least three people, two Dutch and a Slovenian, were killed, according to the STA news agency.
A body was discovered on Saturday near the capital Ljubljana on a bank of the Sava, and “according to the first elements, the death could have been caused by the floods”, according to STA quoting a police statement.
The Krsko nuclear power plant, near the flooding Sava, lifted the incident notice declared on Friday for “unusual event”, after the level of the river fell. The town of Crna na Koroskem, about 100 kilometers north of the capital, is one of the hardest hit. Access remains cut off, aid and relief arriving by army helicopters.
Closer to the capital, many roads are still impassable and areas without access to Kamnik, where one death due to flooding has been reported. In Menges, a nearby village flooded on Friday, rescuers and residents were busy trying to clean up. “First we heard a siren, then another, then it was like a tsunami,” a 50-year-old told AFP in front of his damaged house.
“The water quickly leaked inside to the kitchen… Our only solution was to take the children upstairs and wait for help,” says Mateja Hribar Ziherl, who runs the kindergarten. , also flooded. Slovenia, independent since 1991, has been a member of the European Union since 2004.
