April 19 - The Danube and other rivers in southeast Europe have swollen to record highs and broken flood defences, swamping large tracts of land and forcing thousands from their homes. Thousands have been evacuated in Romania, while Serbia has seen the worst damage to agriculture. Bulgaria has escaped serious damage, but will be alert as waters stay high and threaten to erode flood defences for at least a week more.
ROMANIA
- Over 6,650 people have fled their homes, the Interior Ministry said. Water has swamped 485 km (300 miles) of roads and destroyed 19 bridges. It has also inundated 693 houses, destroying 184.
- Some 47,500 hectares (117,400 acres) of land are submerged. Wheat was lost on 9,500 hectares, or around 0.3 percent of total wheat acreage. Barley was lost on 1,000 ha, while maize has not been affected at all.
Around 6,000 livestock have been moved to higher ground. Losses are estimated at about 4.6 million lei (US$1.5 million) in agriculture and 7.5 million lei in forestry.
- Four of Romania's nine large Danube ports have been shut. Others including the largest at Galati, were working at lower capacity. Only flood relief teams and ships carrying food to isolated areas are being allowed to pass, while on the Black Sea, the Constanta port was closed.
SERBIA
- The government could not give official figures but said dozens of families had left their homes. Authorities ordered 1,000 to leave Belgrade's Partizan suburb on the Sava river but most refused.
- Some 122,573 hectares of arable land are submerged and 112,173 hectares more are in danger from ground water, the Agriculture Ministry said.
Municipal governments estimated farm damages at 3.1 billion dinars (US$44 million).
- The Danube has been closed to shipping for 20 days, according to state shipping company Jugoslovensko Recno Brodarstvo. The river is expected to re-open in a few days.
Ships transported 30,000 tonnes of goods this month, compared with an monthly average of 133,000 tonnes.
BULGARIA
- Around 150 people have been evacuated from towns on the Danube's banks and around 250 buildings flooded. The river engulfed several roads but has so far caused no other major damage to infrastructure.
- Some 1,200 hectares of wheat were flooded, mainly by rising groundwater. The crop may still be salvaged, according to Deputy Agriculture Minister Tsvetla Bachvarova.
But the floods are very likely to delay spring sowings in affected areas and some fields will remain waterlogged for the rest of the year. There are no reports of displaced livestock.
- The floods have shut down all of Bulgaria's ports on the Danube except for the terminal in east Rousse. Most other ports are under water.
"We hope the level will start decreasing in the beginning of next week. But at least until then, shipping will be limited or forbidden," said Georgi Georgiev, head of the Agency for Maintenance and Study of the Danube River. (Additional reporting by Beti Bilandzic, Radu Marinas, Tsvetelia Ilieva, Martin Dokoupil, and Kremena Miteva)
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
