Costs mount from Bulgaria’s June floods, Sofia July hailstorm
Sofia municipality has put in a claim for a million leva (about 500 000 euro) for cleaning critical infrastructure after the July 8 severe hailstorm that struck the Bulgarian capital city – but this sum pales in comparison with the mounting bills for damage caused at the Black Sea coast in the June 19 floods.
Sofia municipality’s claim, filed to the state interdepartmental commission, is separate to private sector costs of damage to buildings and cars. Insurance companies have said that about 10 000 cars were damaged by hailstones that came down in barrages on parts of the city.
The capital city has been cleaning about 22km watercourses of debris, tree branches and leaves but there are still 10km to go.
Separately, it has emerged that damage to the Dobrich region from the deadly floods on June 19 adds up to an estimate 45.17 million leva.
Most of the damage was reported to be in the regional centre, the Dobrich district, where the estimate is 26.63 million leva.
Elsewhere on the Black Sea coast, the mayor of Balchik, Nikolai Angelov, said that the municipality so far had invested about 50 000 leva in repairs to sewerage and clearing the bed of the river Kranevska, while repairs to water mains in the town were beginning.
The June 19 floods cost 16 lives in the areas of Varna’s Asparouhovo, Dobrich, Veliko Turnovo and Shoumen.
Towards the end of June, officials said that the estimated damage in the Veliko Turnovo area was more than 10 million leva. Varna province officials that damage to infrastructure was estimated at 30 million leva.
Damage from the June 19 torrential rain and flooding was said to be about 15 million, counting in about 1.5 million leva to be able to reopen the Pass of the Republic to traffic.
On July 14, a report on an investigation by the National Construction Supervision Directorate said that it had been established that the deadly wave that swept through Asparouhovo had been caused by the torrential rain being channelled by illegal buildings and built-up refuse that caused blockages. The report found that illegal logging and the state of water reservoirs were not contributory factors.
The directorate’s investigation found that there were 17 illegal properties in the most affected part of Varna district.
