Bucharest, Sep 24 – Yesterday, because of disastrous floods that hit Romania in the past days, the National Committee for Emergencies had to meet twice – at noon, as chaired by PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, and again in the evening, under the authority of President Traian Basescu. Today, Basescu and Tariceanu together visited critically affected locations.
The Gov’t Spokesperson announced that during the first meeting of the National Committee for Emergencies, Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu has decided to allocate food and goods of prime necessity to the prefectures of the counties affected by floods previous days, provided they request the Government's aid.
The Ministry of Labour will allocate aids amounting to 30 millions RON to the families of the deceased persons, the Gov’t Spokesperson also stated.
The State Secretary in the Ministry of Administration and Interior (MAI), Mr. Anghel Andreescu presented the overall evaluation of the situation in the last 24 hours. 299 villages and towns have been affected by floods in Arges, Constanta, Dambovita, Dolj, Ilfov, Prahova counties. 71 houses were completely destroyed, 1.098 were damaged and 2.152 were flooded.
There were three dead in Constanta County. Other deceases might be confirmed, because there are two missing persons, and ten houses are destroyed.
The heavy rain in Ilfov County have determined the authorities to institute the state of emergency in 15 locations: Buftea, Chitila, Mogosoaia, Dragomiresti Vale, Ciorogarla, Domnesti, Clinceni, Bragadiru, Cornetu, Magurele, Darasti Ilfov, Jilava, 1 Decembrie, Copaceni and Vidra, Mr. Andreescu said.
As of Constanta County, Mr. Andreescu stated that floods in these areas have been caused by the outflow of water from the mountains, and not by the rivers outflow.
The Ministry of Interior (MAI) and Minsitry of Defence gendarmes and intervention forces used motorboats and assault boats, 61 persons being saved. Mr. Anghel Andreescu has shown that these intervention forces are in a ‘second degree’ state of emergency.
"All these intervention forces can take action any time to save people or property, and to evacuate by force people who are in danger and refuse to leave their houses," Mr. Andreescu has stated. He has also underlined that the MAI representatives are in permanent contact with the local authorities who are ready to take action. "All the authorities are in the area and are ready to intervene. In this moment, the number of the intervention forces exceeds 2.500-3.000 persons” the MAI representative said.
The traffic on seven national roads is closed or is deployed with difficulty, on different sectors, Constantin Dascalu, the State Secretary in the Ministry of Transport said. 10 railways are closed, among which 804 Ploiesti Sud - Urziceni and 700 Bucharest - Galati. "We are ready and we wait the waters receding. In the flooded areas, there have been sent crushed-stone wagons of and we will immediately intervene after the waters’ receding," Mr. Dascalu stated.
The interim director of the National Administration "Romanian Waters", Mr. Madalin Mihailovici, has said that there will not be overflow in Ialomita and Ilfov over the next days. He has showed that the level of Didru reservoir increased. The safety works will start at this reservoir, through a project financed by the World Bank. According to Mihailovici, problems might occur downstream from Urziceni town, but the authorities are ready for action.
While, yesterday, PM Tariceanu left the country, for an international meeting of Liberal parties in Bratislava, Romanian President Traian Basescu chaired a second meeting of the National Committee for Emergencies, yesterday at 5 pm. President Basescu intended to strengthen co-ordination of actions as the Eastern region of Dobrogea is still affected by heavy rains.
Today, President Basescu and PM Tariceanu co-chaired another meeting of the National Committee for Emergencies.
Tariceanu and other Cabinet members delivered a press conference to outline the ongoing actions for floods relief, infrastructure security and recovery, health relief, etc.
On Saturday, in the afternoon, President Basescu and PM Tariceanu together visited four locations in Southern Romania, critically hit by floods.
Romania Report
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