Environment

Climate emergency

Torrential rains and floods in the Balkans

Critical situations in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia

17/05/2023

The torrential rains of recent days have caused flooding in large areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In Croatia the most critical situation is that of the town of Hrvatska Kostajnica, completely flooded by the Una river that marks the border with its twin Bosnian town.

The center of Kostajnica, which has about three thousand inhabitants, has been underwater since late Tuesday evening and a hundred houses are completely flooded, some with water up to a meter high.

The damage is extensive but so far there is no news of victims and all the population involved has been rescued.

Meanwhile, it is feared that the rivers that cross the city of Karlovac, 50 km south of Zagreb, where civil protection and firefighters are working to protect the most at-risk banks, could also flood.

In the last 24 hours, precipitation has averaged between 10 and 35 millimeters in almost all of Croatia.

The weather service still predicts rain with further heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours.

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Flood emergency also in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the most alarming situations are in Bihac, Sanski Most and in the Krajina region, in the extreme northwest on the border between the two countries.

The authorities ordered the closure of three border crossings with Croatia – Bosanska, Dubica, Bosanska Kostajnica and Bosanski Novi.

Difficult situation, but still not a real emergency in Slovenia, also affected by prolonged and abundant rains. In the northeast of the country, several landslides and landslides were reported, which raised alarm for buildings and infrastructure and caused the closure of several local roads.