Ministers visit flood-stricken village, clean-up work in full swing

Residents in the flood-hit village of Píla near Bratislava started clean-up work on June 8 after a local stream failed to contain the 100 millimetres of torrential rain that hit the area within three hours on June 7, the TASR newswire reported.

Residents in the flood-hit village of Píla near Bratislava started clean-up work on June 8 after a local stream failed to contain the 100 millimetres of torrential rain that hit the area within three hours on June 7, the TASR newswire reported.

The village was cut off from electricity and water supplies. Dozens of houses were damaged and many cellars inundated with water. No casualties were reported, however.

The site was visited by various members of the government – Prime Minister Iveta Radičová, Interior Minister Daniel Lipšic, Defence Minister Ľubomír Galko and Environment Minister József Nagy.

"Torrential rain is an ever more frequent occurrence in Slovakia, and we'll probably have to learn to cope with it. [Emergency] teams falling under the Interior Ministry dealt with this specific situation pretty quickly and well, as the first units arrived within 13 minutes," said Lipšic to TASR, giving assurances that the clean-up work in the area will continue.

"One of the priorities of the Integrated Rescue System will be to ensure better preparation in terms of equipment vis-a-vis situations like this one. That's why the Fire and Rescue Brigade (HaZZ) will receive funding for flood equipment in particular," added Lipšic.

The Sme daily wrote on June 9 that the probable cause for the devastating tidal wave and damage caused by it is the narrowing of the local streams’ channels and the field roads.

“In Píla, they kept narrowing the banks of the brook,” said the Government Proxy for Management of Floods and Country, Martin Kováč, to Sme.

In the Small Carpathian mountains above the village, a hundred litres per square meter of rain fell in a few hours, Sme wrote. Other municipalities hit by torrential rain were Píla, Častá, Doľany, and Horné Orešany. About 9,000 people are homeless, several bridges and roads were damaged so they cannot be used, as well as streets and squares in some of the municipalities. The small Gidra River was 20 centimetres deep on Tuesday noon, 155 centimetres at 18:00 and 77 centimetres at midnight. It seems that so far there are no fatalities and only one person had to be hospitalised as direct result of the flood.

Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulík offered the people who lost their homes to stay at the government-owned building in Častá-Papiernička, which is empty of visitors right now and offers 200 beds. However, it is without power and running water – like the rest of the stricken villages – and the road leading to it is damaged, Sme wrote.

Source: TASR, Sme

Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

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