Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob calls it the “worst natural disaster” since the country’s independence in 1991. The death toll from the historic floods in Slovenia on Monday (7 August) is six dead, while clean-up operations take place with the help of European countries.
These floods affect two-thirds of the country, and were caused by torrential rains on Friday, which caused the rivers to swell rapidly. The Slovenian meteorological service said a month of rain had fallen in less than a day in the country of the former Yugoslavia, which has nearly two million inhabitants.
On Sunday, a clearing participant fell to his death in a pit and the body of a second man was found in a river, police told Agence France-Presse. Two Dutch tourists had already lost their lives on Friday and the bodies of two locals were found on Saturday.
Entire villages are still under water. Crops have been destroyed and cars are stuck in the mud. Major highways in parts of the country have been closed. Many bridges also collapsed. On Monday, rescuers were still trying to clear passageways towards the most isolated localities and assess the damage, estimated by the government at more than half a billion euros.
Slovenian authorities have warned of the danger of possible mudslides and swollen rivers that could overflow at any time, overtaking sandbag banks placed by emergency teams.
France sends two excavators
A member of the European Union (EU) and NATO, Slovenia has requested the supply of excavators, modular bridges, helicopters and soldiers. A first truck carrying humanitarian aid arrived from Hungary late Sunday, followed by a helicopter, while Croatia, Spain and Bulgaria provided aid. France is sending two excavators with engineering units, while Germany is providing two prefabricated temporary bridges and two excavators with accompanying personnel, the European Commission said.
On X (ex-Twitter), the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced her visit on Wednesday to “see the destruction” and “discuss EU aid”. The United States has also deployed personnel to Ljubljana to assess the situation and determine urgent humanitarian needs.
Even Ukraine, which is trying to fend off a large-scale invasion by Russia, has offered to help. “The Ukrainian side will support, within its capabilities, its friends and partners who are in difficulty, just as Slovenia supports the Ukrainian nation and helps us to deflect Russian aggression,” Oleg wrote on social media. Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian foreign ministry.
The body of a man rescued in Austria
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his “dismay” at the “terrible disaster caused by the floods in Slovenia and Austria”. The body of a man was recovered on Sunday from a river in the southern border of Austria, where heavy rains also caused flooding and landslides.
Flash floods have also been reported in neighboring Croatia, and heavy rains and storms have caused significant damage further east in Serbia, which lies downstream of the swollen Sava River, which flows from Slovenia and the Croatia in the Balkans.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considers that global warming is making extreme weather events, such as floods, more frequent and intense.