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Four die in flash flood at Italy festival
by Staff Writers
Rome (AFP) Aug 03, 2014


Two die, hundreds are evacuated in Bulgaria floods
Mizia, Bulgaria (AFP) Aug 03, 2014 - Two people drowned and 900 were evacuated from their homes as flooding caused by torrential rains hit northwestern Bulgaria, the latest in a string of such disasters since June, the interior ministry said on Sunday.

Over 800 residents of the town of Mizia were evacuated overnight and during the day on Sunday after the swollen river Skut submerged large parts of the town under up to three metres (10 feet) of water, the interior ministry said.

The bodies of a 60-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman were recovered from their inundated houses as boats and two army helicopters evacuated residents from the area, the ministry said.

Several dozen houses collapsed under the strong flood wave in the small town, home to 3,200 people. Electricity was cut for safety reasons.

Aerial pictures released by the army showed vast parts of Mizia and its adjacent farmland covered in muddy green waters with rooftops sticking out and no sight of roads or bridges.

Another 100 people were also evacuated in the nearby village of Krushovitsa and houses, gardens and roads in several other villages in the region were also submerged.

"Dozens of houses have collapsed, hundreds are under water. The situation is critical," the country's acting interior minister, Tsvetlin Yovchev, said.

Rescue operations were ongoing with about 300 emergency workers, firefighters, police officers and soldiers dispatched to the area.

The Bulgarian Red Cross sent blankets, bedding and bread to the evacuated people and appealed for donations of bottled water.

Heavy rains have lashed northwestern Bulgaria on and off in the past weeks, prompting repeated flood alerts by the weather and rescue services.

Fourteen people, including two children, had also perished when floods sparked by heavy rainfall swept through their poor neighbourhood in the Black Sea city of Varna in June.

Four people died in a flash flood that tore through a festival in Italy on Saturday night, sweeping away residents, tents and cars in a muddy torrent.

After a sudden 10-minute burst of heavy rain during the local festival in Refrontolo near Venice, the Lierza river burst its banks, local officials and media reported on Sunday.

Torrential rain also led to flooding in northern Bulgaria overnight on Saturday, leaving two people dead and prompting local authorities to evacuate more than 900 after a number of houses were left under water.

In Italy, the flooding hit near a popular beauty spot turning a local street into a raging river as the waters carried away tents, vehicles and stands.

The bodies of four men were discovered, some of them as far as one kilometre (over half a mile) from the area of the festivities, rescue officials said.

Local authorities said eight people had been injured.

"When we arrived at the festival site, instead of a street we found a river which was more than a metre high," a firefighter told the Italian news agency ANSA.

Rescue workers were battling on Sunday to protect the 17th century Molinetto della Croda mill, a well-known local landmark, which sits beside the river.

Images from the town showed corrugated iron sheds torn from their foundations and cars that had been swept away resting on their sides, half-submerged in the water of the river.

Initial media reports said as many as 20 people had been hurt, but the president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, said Sunday that six remained in hospital, with one patient in intensive care.

President Giorgio Napolitano issued a statement to express his condolences to the families of the victims and "solidarity" with local residents.

Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti said the tragedy was a reminder of the need to address the "structural fragility" of the land in some areas.

In November last year, flash floods in and around the Sardinian port of Olbia left 17 people dead and thousands homeless.

According to a report by the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate in Bologna, rainfall in July this year was 74 percent higher than the average for the month between 1971 and 2000.

The number of regions hit by flooding has doubled to eight in the last 10 years, according to Italy's main environmental organisation Legambiente which has called for more money to be spent on prevention.

In Bulgaria, the interior ministry said heavy rains had caused the river Skut to burst its banks, leaving parts of the town of Mizia under three metres of water.

The bodies of an elderly man and woman were found in their homes, it said.

"Dozens of houses have collapsed, hundreds are under water, the situation is critical," Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovtchev said.

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SHAKE AND BLOW
Five dead in East Europe flooding
Bucharest (AFP) July 31, 2014
Two men reported missing in southern Romania following floods in Eastern Europe were found dead Thursday, taking the regional toll to five, official sources said. The two bodies were found miles downstream from the area where they were swept away by floodwaters as high as two metres (six and a half feet), in Valcea county, the emergency inspectorate told AFP. A further two men are still ... read more


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