Three Hundred People Evacuated As Dyke Breaks

A magpie sits on a fence near the flooded cemetery in the village of Rast (300km west from Bucharest) , near the Danube river, 23 April 2006. Thousands of residents have been evacuated from several Danube villages in western Romania and thousands more are under threat as the river hit near-record levels in Romania and Bulgaria. Photo courtesy of Daniel Mihailescu and AFP.

by Staff Writers
Bucharest (AFP) Apr 24, 2006
Three hundred people were evacuated after the swollen Danube breached a dyke near Constanta in southeast Romania, local authorities announced on Sunday. Around 20 metres (65 feet) of the dyke at Oltina, in Constanta province, gave way on Saturday night, Realitatea TV cited the local authorities as saying.

The waters have been pouring into a nearby lake, but are threatening homes in the area, along with 130 farms.

A further 80 families in Oltina "have packed their bags but preferred to stay at home this Sunday" for traditional Orthodox Easter celebrations and mass in the village church, the television station reported.

A total of 13 dykes have been broken or damaged along the Danube and its tributaries in Romania, with authorities carrying out "controlled flooding" of some 21,000 hectares (52,000 acres) to reduce the pressure on inhabited areas.

The floods have affected 13 Romanian provinces and forced the evacuation of 5,500 people, authorities said on Sunday.

In eastern Hungary thousands of volunteers, firemen, soldiers and experts have been working round the clock to shore up and repair dykes on the Koros and Tisza rivers, tributaries of the Danube.

A breach in the Koros dyke that forced the evacuation of three villages on Saturday was repaired during the night, the interior ministry's disaster management services said on Sunday.

Bulgaria and Serbia have also been hit by flooding.

In Ruse, in northeastern Bulgaria, the floodwaters from the Danube rose to nearly nine metres (30 feet), their highest level since 1970.

Serbia's Agriculture Minister Ivan Dulic-Markovic said a new line of defence had been erected along the river Tisza.

But the waters have begun to subside. In eastern Hungary on Sunday the Tisza's level had fallen by between one and two centimetres (0.4-0.78 inches) depending on the location, while the Koros's level at Szarvas fell by 10 centimetres (four inches).

In Romania, rescue workers spoke of a "slight fall in the water level".

Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday appealed for aid for the victims of the flooding.

"My thoughts go out to our brothers of the eastern (Orthodox) churches who are celebrating Easter today, he told thousands of faithful gathered to hear his Angelus prayer in St Peter's Square in the Vatican City.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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