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Southeastern Europe fears more flooding
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Southeastern Europe fears more flooding
Southeastern Europe has braced itself for more flooding as meteorologists said the Danube river, which has reached its highest level in more than 100 years, would rise again in the coming days.
In Serbia, the Danube and other major rivers eased slightly on Sunday, but local flood defense teams continued strengthening embankments in preparation for new floodwaters.
In Belgrade and Smederevo, a town some 40 kilometers (24 miles) east of the capital, hard machinery, sand-filled trucks and fire engines have been working constantly since Saturday building up new embankments on the Danube, private B92 radio reported .
Authorities suspended traffic in streets along the river bank in Smederevo, as well as railroad traffic to the town.
The level of the Danube there reached 8.45 meters (27 feet), some 40 centimeters more than the highest level ever recorded, and it was expected to continue rising.
At least 500 homes in towns and villages along the Danube were under water and the inhabitants were forced to evacuate.
The river had already reached 9.75 meters in the eastern Serbian town of Veliko Gradiste, where the river makes a natural border with Romania, but defense teams have so far managed to prevent floods there.
In the nearby town of Golubac, where water had already inundated the bus station, school, hotel and pedestrian zone in the city center, water pumps worked constantly and hundreds of people, including police and army units, filled bags with sand to rebuild defense dykes.
500 households destroyed</B>
A strong wind put pressure on embankments and the weather bureau forecast that the river would rise another 30 centimetres. They predicted that the flooding would peak yesterday or today.
In Belgrade, where the Danube meets the Sava river, water levels rose more slowly than in previous days.
But city authorities were forced to suspend traffic on several low-lying boulevards that have been covered with water for several days. A part of Belgrade railway station was also flooded, and a few hundred inhabitants were evacuated. The severe flooding across the region was caused by heavy rains and the springtime melting of snow.
In Romania, where the Danube on Saturday reached its highest level in more than a century, several villages were flooded overnight and at least 100 more people were evacuated.
So far 700 people have been forced to leave their homes and around 500 households have been destroyed by the floodwaters. In a bid to limit the damage in densely populated areas, the authorities have decided to carry out controlled flooding over some 92,000 hectares (227,300 acres) of agricultural fields in three southern regions.
Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu and Environment Minister Sulfina Barbu on Sunday visited two regions where this is due to be done to reassure worried citizens.
Weather forecasters said Romania would experience some relief as from yesterday as the levels of the Danube began falling there.
Neighbouring Bulgaria on Sunday maintained a state of emergency in all seven regions which border the Danube.
The river was lying stable near the north-western town of Vidin at 9.66 meters, but it had risen to 8.78 meters at Ruse, authorities in the northeastern port said.
The northwestern towns of Botevo and Simeonovo remained cut off from the outside world because their roads were under water. In Nikopol, also in the north, streets and houses along the river were still flooded.
Authorities were delivering fresh water and food supplies to the isolated regions and trying to strengthen dykes along the swollen river, the civil protection agency said in a statement.
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