Attachments
Situation analysis
Description of the disaster
From 16 to 17 April 2014 intense rainfalls followed with moderate snowfalls at higher altitude affected the western, eastern and southern parts of Serbia resulting in power losses and, in some places, traffic interruptions due to the collapsed road infrastructure in several villages. Starting from 18 April, the temperatures increased and caused the snow to melt rapidly in some lower areas. That had an impact on the river levels, with some smaller rivers and their creeks spilling over settlements in places close to the river beds. The situation was the most critical in the municipalities of Lučani and Kuršumlija. In Lučani, around 50 families were endangered by the increasing levels of river Bjelica, and one of the roads leading to Lučani was disconnected because of floods. On 19 April, conditions got worse and an emergency situation has been declared in a few municipalities as the river levels grew above the normal defense levels. Presently, the most serious situation is in Prokuplje, Zaječar, Žitoradja, Kuršumlija and Doljevac municipalities, where emergency evacuation took place in the lower parts where people were in danger. The situation remains critical as most of these municipalities are left without clean drinking water, since the water wells and the city water supply network are damaged.
So far, 11 municipalities have declared a state of emergency but more are in danger as the weather conditions in next couple of days will lead to fast snow melting and more rainfalls which will in return have an effect on the water levels on the rivers and on the people living in the nearby communities. Several landslides have occurred but luckily not affected any households at this moment.