Posted on 04/22/2006 3:46:48 PM PDT by lizol
Mass evacuations in Romania, Hungary as Danube strains its banks
BUCHAREST (AFP) - More than 10,000 Romanians faced evacuation from their homes as workers struggled to prevent the swollen river Danube bursting its banks.
In neighboring Hungary and Bulgaria, troops and emergency teams also fought flood waters, and southeast of Budapest 4,500 people were told to leave their homes when a dyke 150 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of the capital failed.
Authorities in the southern Dolj region of Romania, where 12 areas have already been flooded, evacuated 5,400 people from villages near the river on Saturday morning.
They said many others could be forced to leave if the Danube breached its dyke, despite efforts by 100 police officers to shore it up.
"If it (the dyke) gives way, we will have to evacuate more than 10,000 people," said the regional head of water services, Stefan Stoica.
But local authorities reported that efforts to stabilize the dyke appeared to be working and water levels were dropping.
In Hungary orders were issued for the evacuation of the inhabitants of three villages, following a second breach in dykes along the river Koros, according to local civil protection official Istvan Tokar.
"Because of the new danger situation people still here must leave their houses" by Saturday evening, he said.
But by Saturday midday fewer than 800 of the 4,500 people at risk had been evacuated in the menaced Jasz-Nagyukun-Szolnok area. Many preferred to sign a document freeing the authorities of responsibility for their fate, rather than move out.
Those evacuated were allowed to take 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds) of their belongings. People helping reinforce the dykes were given special permission to stay.
In all 1,292 people in Hungary had been evacuated by midday and the number was expected to rise to 4,000 by the end of the day.
In Bulgaria conditions worsened in several places along the Danube.
Water poured into a city centre street of the northern city of Nikopol and in the northeastern Bulgaria town of Ruse, the country's main port on the Danube, the water rose to nearly nine metres (30 feet), the highest level since 1970.
In Silistra in the northeast, flooding appeared imminent and in Svichtov in the north rising groundwater flooded 200 hectares (494 acres).
In Serbia, Agriculture Minister Ivan Dulic-Markovic said a new line of defence had been erected along the river Tisza, a tributary of the Danube. He said the rising river Sava, whose confluence with the Danube is in central Belgrade, also posed a threat.
The floodwaters were expected to subside slightly on Sunday.
FMCDH(BITS)
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