Risk of further floods remains – Bulgaria’s environment ministry
A risk of further flash floods remains, Bulgaria’s Environment Ministry said on June 22, as the country prepared to officially mourn the death toll in floods in Varna and Dobrich and counted the cost of the devastating deluge that swept the Black Sea coast on June 19.
The rivers with the highest water levels were Rusenski Lon, Tundzha (close to Elhovo) and Yantra (close to Karantsi), the ministry said on June 22.
Water levels in the lower reaches of rivers in the Danube and Black Sea basins were expected to rise on June 23.
In the aftermath of the floods that hit the Asparouhovo area of Varna and the Dobrich area, the Bulgarian Red Cross warned that efforts were being made at disinfection, with sufficient reserves in stock to be able to refuse offers of assistance from Red Cross organisations in other South Eastern European countries, but there was a risk of epidemiological danger from the accummulated polluted water.
Bulgaria also was in the first stages of counting the cost of the flood damage. In the village of Kranevo in the Balchik municipality alone, first estimates were of damage of 500 000 leva (about 250 000 euro).
In Kranevo, about 10 hotels had been damaged by the floodwaters.
Also on the northern Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, the Gergana Hotel in the Albena seaside resort was declared unusable because of a crack in the building which caused it to tilt.
Dobrich issued an appeal on June 22 for packaged non-perishable food. The municipality also needed cleaning disinfectants, rubber boots, work gloves, bags, brushes and tools to clean, curved blades, galvanized and plastic buckets. Deliveries were to be accepted in the warehouse district of the Bulgarian Red Cross in Pobeda village near Dobrich.
Elsewhere, the Road Infrastructure Agency said that the Pass of the Republic, heavy damaged in the deluge, would remain closed to traffic for at least a month. Damage there was estimated at a million leva.
Unconfirmed reports, in Bulgarian-language 24 Chassa on June 22, said that close to 5000 cars were damaged in the floods.
