Torrential rains and heavy floods ravaged Slovenia, killing at least three people, cutting off roads and bridges and surging into buildings. Slovenia’s prime minister described the devastation as “catastrophic”, Report informs referring to El Pais.
The Slovenian environmental agency raised the weather alert to the highest level after a month’s amount of rain fell within 24 hours in the northern, northwestern and central parts of the small European country.
As rain continued to fall, authorities warned of more floods in other areas because of swiftly swelling rivers.
Authorities in Celje ordered evacuations of around 4,000 people, roughly one tenth of the town’s population as the surging Savinja River overflowed its banks. Upstream in the town of Ljubno, the same river swept away houses and caused landslides.
Northern Slovenia’s Koroska region, bordering Austria, was hit the hardest, with bridges and roads destroyed and the water supply cut off in some areas.
Local authorities asked the Austrian government to stand ready to provide hospital care for Slovenians, if needed. The main hospital in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, said it was operating on alert mode and told people only to come in for urgent reasons.