Romania breaches Danube dike to save villages from flooding
Almost 8,000 people have fled their homes in the Balkans. Further north in Hungary, authorities evacuated 4,500 more from three towns near the confluence of the Tisza and Koros rivers.
Authorities in Romania, the worst-hit country, tore a 40-metre gap in a dike on its coast to let Danube waters - swollen by heavy rains and melting snow - flow into the Black Sea.
“Within hours, the level of water surrounding the villages of Crisan, Caraorman, Sfantu Gheorghe and the town of Sulina should fall by around 20 centimetres,” Beatrice Popescu of the Environment Ministry said.
The dike was built to retain water in the ecologically sensitive delta during periods of drought.
A further 4,000 people from Rast, a poor village in south-western Romania, spent their fourth night in schools, hospitals, tents or with relatives in higher-lying areas.
The army and volunteers tried to ease hardship with hot meals and preparations for Mass and improvised celebrations ahead of Sunday’s Orthodox Easter.
Environment Minister Sulfina Barbu said a new wave of water was expected by the weekend to push the river to a century-high flow of 15,600 cubic metres per second and officials warned the Danube could flood several more villages.
“We are at war,” said Waters Department official Madalin Mihailovici near the flooded town of Bistret.
Waters from the Danube, Europe’s second-longest river, have flooded more than 300,000 hectares of land in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. In Hungary, a further 138,000 are submerged by floodwater.
Romania has tried to avert disaster by deliberately submerging vast swathes of land along the river, which meanders from Germany through central Europe to empty into the Black Sea.
But tens of thousands of people still face calamity as rains push the water higher and waterlogged barriers threaten to buckle under the pressure.
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