Devastating floods kill three people and destroy roads, bridges and houses, affecting two thirds of Slovenian territory.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2754190

Published On 6 Aug 20236 Aug 2023

Devastating floods triggered by torrential rains have caused the death of at least three people in Slovenia, with estimated damage of 500 million euros ($550m).

Prime Minister Robert Golob said on Saturday that floods on Thursday and Friday were “the biggest natural disaster” in the small Alpine nation’s history.

Golob said road and energy infrastructure were hit particularly hard, as well as hundreds of homes and other buildings. Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes and many had to be rescued by helicopters or firefighters in boats.

Slovenia’s army has joined the relief effort, with troops reaching cut-off areas in the north to help.

Two-thirds of the territory in the country, home to two million people, were affected, the prime minister said.

Among those who died were two Dutch climbers on Friday in the mountains near Kranj, presumably as a result of being struck by lightning, Slovenia’s STA news agency reported citing police.

Also on Friday, a woman died due to flooding in the town of Kamnik, 20km (12.5 miles) north of the capital, Ljubljana, according to the report.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen assured Slovenia of the union’s help. The damage in Slovenia was “heartbreaking”, she tweeted.

In Dravograd, near the border with Austria, 110 people, including 30 tourists, had to be brought to safety after a landslide Saturday.

The town, which lies at the confluence of three rivers – Drava, Meze and Mislinje – was at risk of another landslide.

  • @[email protected]English
    3•1 year ago

    I’m in Asia, but I’ve experienced something similar once. It was awful. Takes weeks for you to completely clean your house enough, and the damage is just…bad. We lost a lot of important documents, broke a lot of appliances and furniture, etc.

    I hope those affected get the help they need. They’ll need a lot of it.

    • MouseWithBeerOPMEnglish
      0•1 year ago

      I am so sorry to hear that you had to go through that in the past :( I can’t even imagine how it was for you and people similarly affected by floods. I hope you were eventually able to replace everything.

      A coworker went to help over the weekend as a volunteer firefighter and the things he said they heard/saw was just terrible :/

        • MouseWithBeerOPM
          3•1 year ago

          Hey, thanks for thinking about us :) It rains from time to time, but nothing like the rain that caused this luckly.

          Sadly as things calmed down now the extend of the destruction becomes more and more known and it is a lot worse that it was thought at the begining.

          But people are coming together and starting to fix things up and there have been absolutely massive charity drives to help the people affected.

          Sadly I can’t find any decent English articles with updates.

          • @[email protected]English
            2•1 year ago

            That’s cool. Yeah, funny how that works. People come together and are quite generous/caring during calamities. Hopefully the weather gets better.

            • MouseWithBeerOPM
              2•1 year ago

              Yup, it is like this every time something happenes and when all is normal we all hate each other lol.

              The weather forecast is really good so hopefully it is going to be accurate.