Soldiers and energy workers have stacked thousands of sandbags to protect Serbia's biggest power plant from flood waters, which are expected to keep rising after the heaviest rains in the Balkans in more than a century killed dozens of people.
On Monday, Bosnian state radio reported that the swollen Sava river, which has wreaked havoc in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, had again overwhelmed flood defences late on Sunday and flooded parts of the northern town of Orasje.
Waters receded in other parts of Bosnia, leaving behind mud, debris and dead animals. Another 1,000 people were evacuated from the border town of Bijeljina, threatened by flood waters from the Sava and the Drina, as well as 5,000 people from the northern town of Odzak, reports said.
In Serbia, a wall of sandbags several miles long was built around the Nikola Tesla power plant in the flood-hit town of Obrenovac, 20 miles south-west of the capital, Belgrade. It covers roughly half of Serbia's electricity needs.
A Reuters cameraman saw another 10 trucks stacked with sandbags standing by. Authorities in Belgrade said emergency services and volunteers had filled 60,000 bags and dispatched them to the power plant.
Credit to The Guardian
On Monday, Bosnian state radio reported that the swollen Sava river, which has wreaked havoc in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, had again overwhelmed flood defences late on Sunday and flooded parts of the northern town of Orasje.
Waters receded in other parts of Bosnia, leaving behind mud, debris and dead animals. Another 1,000 people were evacuated from the border town of Bijeljina, threatened by flood waters from the Sava and the Drina, as well as 5,000 people from the northern town of Odzak, reports said.
In Serbia, a wall of sandbags several miles long was built around the Nikola Tesla power plant in the flood-hit town of Obrenovac, 20 miles south-west of the capital, Belgrade. It covers roughly half of Serbia's electricity needs.
A Reuters cameraman saw another 10 trucks stacked with sandbags standing by. Authorities in Belgrade said emergency services and volunteers had filled 60,000 bags and dispatched them to the power plant.
Map of the floods in the Balkans
A union spokeswoman at Serbia's EPS power utility said some employees had worked three days with barely a break because their relief team could not reach the plant.
"The plant should be safe now," Djina Trisovic said. "We've done all we could. Now it's in the hands of God."
Parts of the plant were already shut down as a precaution, and it would have to be powered down completely if the waters breached the defences.
Serbia is bracing for another flood wave from the Sava, swollen by the heaviest rains since records began 120 years ago.
A union spokeswoman at Serbia's EPS power utility said some employees had worked three days with barely a break because their relief team could not reach the plant.
"The plant should be safe now," Djina Trisovic said. "We've done all we could. Now it's in the hands of God."
Parts of the plant were already shut down as a precaution, and it would have to be powered down completely if the waters breached the defences.
Serbia is bracing for another flood wave from the Sava, swollen by the heaviest rains since records began 120 years ago.
Credit to The Guardian
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