Attachments
This Emergency Appeal seeks CHF 3,842,805 to enable the Secretariat of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to support the Red Cross of Serbia in delivering assistance and support to some 12,400 flood-affected families (49,600 people). The Red Cross of Serbia (RCS) continues to support the ongoing recovery activities that are mostly related to unconditional cash payments. The current implementation timeframe will be extended until 31 May 2015 in order to facilitate procurements under the National Societys capacity building component of the Emergency Appeal. The planned procurements are to be carried out in accordance with the National Societys procurement law which sets the minimum of the procurement time frame between two and three months. Therefore, the timeframe of the operation will be extended by three months, being thus 13 months in total.
Summary:
Torrential rainfalls began in Serbia on 13 May 2014, with an amount of rain in two days’ time equalling to two months` average rainfall as a result of a low-pressure area that formed over the Adriatic Sea due to polar air from Central Europe meeting with the humid subtropical air of the Mediterranean basin. The floods and landslides caused 51 casualties, 23 of which were people who drowned. A national state of emergency was declared on 15 May 2014 by the Government of Serbia. The people evacuated during the peaks of the high floods have mostly returned to their homes. Floods and landslides caused the total destruction of over 426 housing units while over 19,000 flats and other housing units were partially damaged. The damage in the housing sector is estimated at EUR 227 million. The total damage (including losses) is estimated at more than EUR 1.7 billion (source: Government of Serbia), while 274 houses were provided as donations.
The Red Cross of Serbia has shifted its activities from relief to recovery support of the damaged households. To date, 12,340 beneficiaries have received the planned cash grant of CHF 255 per household. The support for 6,900 beneficiaries is funded through the Emergency Appeal. Additionally the National Society has distributed 10,700 wall repair sets, out of which 4,100 were funded through the Emergency Appeal. The rest is provided by the Austrian Red Cross` Great Morava River Early Recovery and Resilience Project (4,235) and other donors. A detailed breakdown will be provided in the final report.
Currently there are still 420 evacuated persons living in 2 collective centres in Belgrade. The Belgrade Red Cross branch is providing two canned meals per day to those evacuated in Obrenovac who are temporarily residing in a former military barrack. In addition, the distribution of bulk hygiene items is organized once per week for 220 evacuated beneficiaries. Another collective centre is organized in a hotel, and the Red Cross of Obrenovac is having sporadic food and non-food items distributions responding to requests by the local authorities.