The floods destroyed hundreds of homes and vehicles and roads are still impassable.
Advertisement
Special police, army units and firefighters have been sent to the worst-hit areas in the capital’s northern suburbs and the nearby villages of Stajkovci, Aracinovo and Smiljkovci.
A woman sits on the furniture, taken out of a flooded house after an overnight storm, at the village of Singelic, just east of Skopje, Macedonia, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016.
The government announced the 15-day state of emergency in the Skopje and Tetovo regions yesterday, and also declared a day of national mourning today, the Macedonian Information Agency reports.
A statement from the European Union expressed “deepest sympathies” and offered assistance to the authorities in Macedonia, home to two million people.
“The amount of rain that hit certain areas in a very brief time was overwhelming and there was no way of preventing it”, Skopje Mayor Koce Trajanovski said.
Skopje’s city council held an emergency session and chose to provide financial help to victims’ families, giving 180,000 denars (3,000 euros) to each. Visitors to Skopje, Macedonia should be aware of more heavy rain to be expected tonight, Sunday night.
“Let us now concentrate on providing help for those hit the most, providing supplies and shelter for those who need it”, Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Todorov said yesterday.
Health authorities have advised residents in the worst hit areas to use only bottled water or water from public authority cisterns for drinking and cooking. The highway connecting the capital Zagreb with the southern coast remained partially closed yesterday.
Only cars were allowed down the sections of a highway and a regional road further north near the port of Rijeka.
Advertisement
Traffic has been limited on the bridges connecting the islands of Pag and Krk with the coast, while some ferry lines have halted services with the islands of Pag and Rab.
