Скачать или смотреть Heavy rains and floods devastate villages in Covasna county

Twenty-seven counties are under a yellow weather alert for heavy rain, lightning, thunderstorms and hail until Saturday.

Hundreds of households in Borșneu village, Covasna County, have been flooded after the nearby river overflowed.

When the flood hit, hundreds of people took refuge in the local school's sports hall. They could only reach their flooded homes by boat in an attempt to save some of their belongings. The village's factory was badly affected by flooding, and the authorities have requested additional assistance from the emergency services to deal with the situation.

Last night, locals in Bacel and Marcus villages received an evacuation order because of the flood that was about to hit. Hectares of crops were seriously damaged and 56 households were flooded in Bacel.

The rivers crossing the affected villages in Covasna County have protection dams, but they are old and unstable.

These same villages were flooded in 2018. Hydrologists have maintained a red flood alert for Covasna, Harghita, Brașov (central Romania), Botoșani and Iași (eastern Romania).
SHOTLIST
Drone shots from today from Borosneu

Flooded village

Gendarmes walking on the flooded area

Boat with locals

Flooded area

VS of the boats with locals

Man walking on the flooded street

VOXPOP (Romanian) Man 1: "I went to my house to try to save the pigs, but we couldn't pick them up. The water level was too high."

VOXPOP (Romanian) Woman, showing the damage: "It is all flooded, the place were the animals were sheltering, the house, the garden, everything."

VOXPOP (Romanian) Man 2: "The water level reaches more than one meter. I couldn't enter the house anymore."

Man walking trough the flooded yard of the factory

Interior of a flooded factory, water reaching the local's waist

VOXPOP (Romanian) Man 3: "I couldn't enter more in the next room, because it was completely covered in water."

VWS Flooded area

SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Kanyo Antal, mayor of Borosneu: "In total, there are 150 flooded houses, there are many damages of the houses, of the crops, but more on the houses. I didn't see so far so much water and so many damages."

VS of flooded area and boats

SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Raed Arafat, Head of the Emergency Department: "We wait for the waters to retreat to intervene, to help people to go back to normality."


VS from Bacel village, Covasna county

Flooded area and houses

Drone footage

QUESTION (Romanian) Reporter: "Is the water level higher than 7 years ago?"

VOXPOP (Romanian ) Woman: "Yes, it is."

QUESTION (Romanian) Reporter: "This ladder is your way out ?"

VOXPOP (Romanian) Woman at the window: "Yes, we came out through here."

Water pumps

SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Tomas Sandor, president of the Covasna County Council: "The works at the dam weren't made at county or local level. The dams should be part of a national strategy."

SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Mircea Fechet: "Environment Minister: "At least up to this moment, we have found that these dams have resisted. We will do everything necessary to finance people's needs and investments."

Drone pix

Water pumps

More of the flooded area- drone pix

Map showing the affected rivers

SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Elena Mateescu, director of the Meteorological National Administration: "The rains have reached more than 200 liters per square meter, taking into consideration that the average rain capacity per month, for May , reached only 60 to 70 liters per square meters in these regions."

More of the flooded area