- Evacuated villages, a dam burst and historical damage: Slovenia is struggling with the worst natural disaster in its history.
- In the south of Austria, after precipitation, the danger of landslides was particularly high in Carinthia. One person fell into a river and died.
- Croatia and Poland were also affected by the storms, but initially things didn’t go too badly there.
The pictures from Slovenia showed devastating conditions after landslides and floods: villages were cut off from the outside world by the water, helicopters supplied thousands of disaster relief workers with the essentials, in the east of the country concrete blocks were flown in by helicopters to repair a burst protective dike. Hundreds of people had to go to emergency shelters because of the threat of landslides.
Slovenia asked the EU and NATO on Sunday for technical supplies to repair the damage. This was reported by the Slovenian news agency STA, citing the government.
Prime Minister Robert Golob spoke on Friday evening of “probably the greatest damage caused by a natural disaster in the history of independent Slovenia,” reported the Slovenian news agency STA.
Thousands of missions in Slovenia
There have been several thousand operations in Slovenia since Thursday, and civil protection helped in 186 locations on the night of Sunday alone. 137 firefighting units pumped water from flooded homes, cleared downed trees, rescued people from vulnerable buildings and delivered much-needed food and medicine.
There was initially no precise information on possible fatalities. In the case of four deaths, the police are investigating whether they are related to the storms. Among them were two Dutch people who were probably struck by lightning while hiking. The authorities were also looking for a missing Italian on Sunday.
Of particular concern on Sunday was the rising level of the approximately 450-kilometer-long Mur, which has its source in Austria. In addition to Slovenia, the river also touches Croatia and Hungary.
A dam burst on the Mur in the east of the country had already alarmed the region on Saturday evening, and 500 people from the village of Dolnja Bistrica were rushed to safety.
The high soil moisture makes landslides more likely, warned the Geological Survey of Slovenia. He called on the population to pay more attention to changes in the ground, buildings and slopes.
Danger of landslides is also increasing in Austria
The consequences of the precipitation, some of which lasted more than 36 hours, also kept the rescue services in parts of Austria in suspense, at times 5,000 firefighters were deployed there, supported by soldiers. Above all, the federal states of Carinthia and Styria and partly Burgenland were affected by the storm.
According to eyewitnesses, one person fell into the Glan in Zollfeld north of Klagenfurt, as reported by the government of the state of Carinthia. She was later found dead.
A few dozen houses and apartments had to be evacuated, for example in the Carinthian communities of Brückl and Keutschach, because there was a risk of mudslides from sliding down completely soaked slopes. In Klagenfurt, the fire brigade pumped out basements around the clock and the city warned that the sewer system could hardly hold any more water.
Residents looked anxiously at the Mur and other rivers, where the water level rose, sometimes dangerously. Instead of heavy rain, there were only showers, as reported by the Geosphere Austria weather service.