Torrential rains and floods hit parts of northern and central Slovenia and southern Austria on Friday, making many roads and bridges completely unusable, damaging buildings and killing at least three people. Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob called the situation and the news agency “catastrophic”. Associated Press he wrote that in the north of the country the amount of rain that normally falls in the entire month of August fell in the space of 24 hours. According to Golob, these could be the worst floods the country has faced since it became independent in 1991.
Slovenia, a mainly mountainous country, is particularly vulnerable to the consequences of heavy rains, which often cause landslides and rivers to overflow. The Koroska region in northern Slovenia near the border with Austria was the hardest hit: in addition to problems with bridges and roads, water supplies were also cut off in some areas. In total, around 16,000 families suffered power cuts and several villages became inaccessible by land: rescuers had to use rubber dinghies to reach the inhabitants. Defense Minister Marjan Sarec ordered part of the army to mobilize to help firefighters and rescue teams in the most affected areas.
The situation in #Slovenia it is catastrophic.
Collapsed bridges, impassable roads, isolated towns, power outages, broken water pipes, and evacuations still in progress.
3,700 civil protection interventions in 36 hours pic.twitter.com/hsrtTfvKhx— Jeanne Perego 🥨 (@jeperego) August 5, 2023
A Slovenian woman died in the town of Kamnik, where overnight floods blocked roads. Two Dutch nationals on holiday died in a mountainous area near the city of Kranj. The authorities of Celje, in the north-east of the country, have ordered the evacuation of about 4,000 people, a tenth of the city’s population, due to the overflowing of the Savinja river. In the Ljubno area, the same river destroyed several houses and caused landslides.
Slovenia is devastated by a wave of bad weather: in the last few hours 210mm fell in Ljubljana, 191mm on Mount Vogel, 177mm on Mount Kredarica, 171mm in Idria. The situation was aggravated by the abundant rainfall that fell on the border ridge with Italy. pic.twitter.com/lNUHpYEvPj
— Kurosh1974 (@Kurosh_74) August 4, 2023
Floods have also caused problems in southern Austria, near the border with Slovenia. In Carinthia, roads to some villages have been blocked by landslides, and local authorities have asked citizens to stay indoors when possible and to avoid traveling by car. Residents of the village of Sankt Paul im Lavanttal were urged to stay in high places and stay away from basements and bridges. According to Energie Steiermark, an Austrian energy supply company, around 4,000 households were left without electricity.
– Read also: What you need to do during a flood to stay safer