Reeling from the floods, Bosnians' anger surfaces
It's been a month and a half since the mud swallowed Idanavic Sadeta's house. Her home used to be a three-story dwelling in this once picturesque valley of raspberry farmers. But in the middle of May, the tiny nearby river began to swell after days of torrential rain. It grew until it resembled a tidal wave filled with mud, rocks and debris. The mud poured into her house, and around it, and kept pouring into the valley until the ground level had risen to the third story of her house. It destroyed her brother's nearby home. It pushed another brother's home 1,200 meters down the valley.
She, her parents, and her brothers are living in a tent pitched on the now-expansive mud flat next to what remains of her home. Most of her possessions are destroyed. They have no electricity, and no running water except the river.
Now they're wondering where they go from here, and why their government seems to be doing little to help them. Last week, along with many of their neighbors from the village, they began protesting in the nearby town where the local government is situated, asking, at the least, for a place to live until they can rebuild their lives.
"So far nobody actually helped us," says Sadeta, a 38-year-old mother of two. "We made our living from agriculture, and we had a decent life before this. Now we have nothing, and we're praying to God for someone to help us. I have no idea how to continue my life."
snip
The torrent of mud that now fills the valley and covers dozens of houses also covers many of the raspberry plants on which the residents made their living. Elvir Asceric, 39, whose forearms are covered with scratches from harvesting the berries, is camped next to his parents' home. The house was two levels, but now only the roof rises above the mud. His parents are hospitalized, and he's not sure how to begin rebuilding. "We can't do anything. We're just waiting for the response from the government," he said.
Sadeta's brother Asmer Tutnjic, 31, says he met with the mayor to plead for help. "He said he's not powerful enough to make a solution," said Tutnjic. "But what the municipality should do is find a safe place for us to live to get us out of the tent. What will we do when winter comes?"
Those in the village who live on the hillside instead of in the valley were luckier. But officials have warned many of them that even their homes may not be safe, because geologists fear the ground underneath may give way in more landslides. Town residents say people panic every time it rains, afraid their homes will crumble beneath them. Many speak about leaving the village for good, fearing they can no longer feel safe there.
Tutnjic and his family believe that if they had been connected politically, they would have received help already. "I know we are a very complicated country," said Tutnjic as his elderly mother leaned on his arm. "But the only thing we ask at this moment is that they deal with us as human beings, who should have a decent life. So many days have passed and nothing has been done. It's not just about money, it's about safety. It's about a local hand of friendship."
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So tell me how some UN Conference in Paris in 2015 is going to help the people NOW? How do you think we will get countries to sign an agreement to bring us even CLOSE to what is needed to deal with the climate crisis when these same governments cannot even deal with the clean up and treat its people LIKE HUMAN BEINGS?! I am poor myself and know from Sandy hitting here how hard it is to pick up after it is all lost. I was one of the lucky ones but look at the people here- LIVING IN TENTS IN THE MUD. While governments waste BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to war over water, gas, religious hatred and revenge. Where is the UN now?
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UPDATE: 6-14-14: War-torn and impoverished, Bosnia faces rebuild once again after floods
Mitra Colic stands in the shell of her home, anguished by the worst flooding in the Balkans in 150 years. "I have moments when I cry and think: What next? Can I go on like this?" she says.
Colic, a 71-year-old retired cleaner, moved to the northern Bosnian town of Modrica during the Yugoslav war from her home near Vukovar, a city in Croatia that endured one of the longest and bloodiest sieges in that conflict. Now she again faces the prospect of rebuilding her life after the floods that swept across the city in a matter of hours, running three and a half metres (11ft) deep in places and making thousands homeless.
"I'm ill, my body is reacting to this," said Colic from the sodden concrete space that was once her front room. Outside in the sun, relatives scrubbed kitchen appliances in the vain hope they might work again.
"But there were floods like this all over the country, there are many people in my position. This is my home, my life. I want to repair this house – I won't leave," she added.
The floods that hit Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia in the past week are the worst in over a century. Reports suggest three months' of rain fell in a matter of days. In Bosnia alone, 40,000 people have been evacuated and 25 confirmed dead – but the death toll is expected to rise. Bosnia's foreign minister has said the destruction is comparable to that in the 1992-95 war that killed 100,000 people and still scars the country.
The damage across the region is expected to cost billions of euros. It is a disaster that Bosnia – one of the poorest countries in Europe – cannot afford. Here the average net wage is just €420 (£340) a month, and the country relies on EU funding of about €100m a year.
Colic's district – built in the past 20 years and largely populated by ethnic Serbs who fled other parts of the former Yugoslavia during the war – sits beside the river Bosna on a plain beneath a pockmarked medieval fortress shrouded in forest. Muddy lines on buildings show how high the water rose. Suburban roads are now stony dirt tracks, stripped of asphalt. There is a stench of rot. A tanned middle-aged man pushes his bicycle slowly. His house has been entirely swept away, he said.
Downriver, the destruction is more apocalyptic. In what was once an affluent riverside district, one house lies levelled like flat-pack furniture. Next door a swimming pool has been dislodged and sits on the muddy riverbank.
The landslides that are the biggest single danger as floodwaters subside are shifting uncleared wartime minefields.
Of 1,200 sq km of known mined areas, 800 sq km have been affected by flooding and topsoil movement, a diplomatic source told the Guardian. By the end of last week, seven explosions of mines and buried ordnance had been reported and, while there have been no fatalities, the situation poses "a serious risk to recovery efforts", the source said.
"This is a real disaster," said Dusko Pejic, a community mayor in Modrica. "We are poor, and what's happened has made us poorer." Pejic is coordinating humanitarian aid, which at local level involves NGOs and local volunteers.
End of excerpt
Disgusting how media reports once because tragedy gives them a momentary ratings bump and then forgets and certain groups and persons only "tweet" on the event when it happens to heighten the political drama - and then nothing. This is really the shame of humanity and also the climate movement... using these tragedies to score points and then forgetting all about them. The people here still suffer, their homes are still washed away, the diseases will still come, the stench of death is still there, the depression, the sadness will never go away. Even people here still wait for their homes almost two years after Sandy and the emotional effects are still felt. We have got to do a much better job of picking up the pieces after a disaster if we are going to survive this.
To those volunteers there: THANK YOU. You have no idea of the good you are doing. These disasters don't end once the waters recede. For many it is just the beginning.
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UPDATE: 5-29-14:
Hundred- Year Balkan Floods: A Report From The Ground
Obrenovac under water. Photo: 350.org.
United by pain and suffering, love and understanding
The images on the Internet and television are terrible. Lost lives, ruined homes, whole towns under water, landslides even took entire settlements, hundreds of thousands people displaced, children crying, no electricity, no drinking water for millions of people.
The body count is on the rise. Daily. A friend of my late father had a stroke and died within 30 minutes after he had been brought to the sports hall, the rescue centre in Belgrade. I personally know some of the 750 people reported missing.
A large-scale disaster unites three countries of former Yugoslavia in pain and suffering, love and understanding. People across the region are united by empathy towards each other showing their best traits. There are true heroes, real friends.
Disaster strips away everything that's fake, all the make-up of daily politics, the rat race we are all a part of. A feeling that we are all human beings and an understanding for each other prevails.
It's about people - not state, religion, ethnicity
Rescue teams from Macedonia, Slovenia and Croatia came to help in Serbia and Bosnia. But the nation states don't matter. This is about everyday people.
The other day, I was walking around Brcko to see if I could help with the rescue efforts and get a better picture of the situation. You learn not to trust officials or the news here quickly. All of a sudden, the weather changed and rain started pouring out of a clear sky. I was in the middle of a road without shelter.
A muslim Bosnian stopped to pick me up and went out of his way to drive me home. When he learned that I was from Obrenovac, he instantly offered me a place to stay.
Now I am an official refugee in Bosnia, as my grandmother was in Serbia during the civil war. As Croatian writer Vedrana Rudan ironically concluded in her blog: "If the water does not withdraw soon this amount of brotherhood and unity will kill us!"
snip
Why did this happen?
Why did this have to happen? Force of nature they say. Lack of responsibility on all levels of government. People were not warned in time, despite reports from meteorologists. A lack of flood protection and emergency planning. Climate change is hardly mentioned but most true.
Experts say that this has been the worst rainfall since records began in more than a century. Obrenovac is said to have taken the hardest blow. The small suburb of Belgrade produces 60% of its electricity from two coal-based thermal power plants that are more than 30 years old.
The course of the Kolubara river, which destroyed Obrenovac, was changed back in the 1970s, so that more coal could be excavated from the Kolubara open pit mines. All but one of these mines are now flooded. The rivers have brought Obrenovac toxics from more than 1,000 hectares of dumped coal ashes and landfills.
We have engineered nature for ages, exploiting it as if it belonged to us. As if we were not its children. Maybe this is the time for former Yugoslavian states that are totally dependent on energy produced from coal, to start thinking about diversification.
Please help!
Disaster relief came immediately from all over the world. Our closest neighbours were the first to help with machines, rescue teams, vehicles, food and water. But the struggle to get back to normal life in the flooded areas is only just starting.
We need chemicals to clean up. We need to to rebuild infrastructure and our homes. We need furniture, home appliances, food, clean water, cattle ... We need know-how, projects, best practice and investments to help us stop a disaster of this scale from happening again.
We have lost a lot. Some have lost everything. If you can, please help!
End of excerpt
There are links in the story where you can go to help the people effected by these floods.
"Disaster strips away everything that's fake, all the make-up of daily politics, the rat race we are all a part of. A feeling that we are all human beings and an understanding for each other prevails."
And on the more idiotic side:
Vladmir Putin Attacks Drag Queen-Blamed For Floods In Serbia
Believe me, I thought this was satire. It isn't- and it's frightening that people still think this way. When you also consider that time to understand the science and act on the climate crisis is running out this does nothing to assure you we can do that. And yet, ignorant people like this still run countries and the churches. Very sad. Thankfully, the Pope understands. People of the church need to listen to him. We are all responsible and are bringing this "punishment" on ourselves. To use religion as a scapegoat to escape that responsibility is not doing God's work!
Pope Francis:“Nature Does Not Forgive”
And again, politics must be mentioned here. It isn't as if the leaders of this country do not know that climate change is real. It isn't as though they haven't been made aware of COP conferences and understand the need to prepare their countries for the effects of the devastation. And yet, they blocked the road and did not allow people to pass during the flood because they were protecting the COAL fired power plant there. As the article above suggested, it may and is time to consider diversifying the energy sources used in these places and face responsibility for the effects of their political decisions.
Serbia Declares National Mourning, Flood Toll Rises
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UPDATE:5-25-14:
Massive clean-up in Balkans after flood of the century
Vast areas still remain under water, and tens of thousands of the nearly 150,000 people evacuated in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia -- the biggest exodus since the wars of the 1990s -- were stuck in shelters.
Those who have come back, if their homes are still standing, were taking appliances and other belongings outside to dry, though many have found everything ruined.
In many areas, homes, schools, shops and roads were plastered with mud and littered with everything from bashed-up cars to bloated dead cows. Health officials were spraying disinfectant to prevent disease.
In the village of Maljurevac south-east of Belgrade, where the water level had risen two metres (six feet), roads were just about passable again as the fire brigade pumped brown water from gardens.
Villager Jasmina Pavlovic, 43, in wellies but with water up her knees, told AFP that apart from their pig and goat, not much had survived, their seven sheep included.
"We've never seen floods this bad. We've lost everything," she said.
End of excerpt
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Seems this has already left the collective consciousness of people and the media. This is one reason why we need to report on these events and keep them fresh in the news because these are REAL people who now have to deal with picking up their lives, mourning their losses and dealing with the daily heartbreak and the nightmares. After Sandy hit here I had nightmares, but also had anxiety attacks in my shower because the water reminded me of the sound of the rushing water and wind. I had months where just looking at the photos brought me to tears. I still cannot travel to NYC through the tunnels. I didn't even lose my house so I can only imagine how those who lost everything including and especially people they loved must have felt and what they went through.
This is a HUGE part of the climate change discussion that is being ignored. The feelings of loss, of hopelessness, of grief. It is like dealing with the death of a loved one. Yet, all some want to do is see this as a political issue or a way to get political revenge on their rivals by using the misery of others instead of actually doing something to help them now. I say, haven't the politicians and their minions had enough time to get off their collective _______and do something?
The facts are clear: we either stop burning fossil fuels or this will be the normal world of the future on a much wider frequent scale. Neither we humans nor other species can nor will survive it.
From link above:
"Belgrade - Curled up on a mattress in a makeshift Belgrade shelter, Jovanka Mitric clutches a grainy black-and-white photo of her family house, now a ruin after the Balkans' worst floods in living memory. "This is the only thing I took with me when the soldiers came to save me from my house," the 78-year-old whispered, gazing at a photo of her husband and her in front of their modest village house.
"It was our wedding day 55 years ago and we had just moved in. It has survived wars, poverty, two big floods, but now is gone for good," she said, wiping away a tear with her wrinkled hand. The deluge began last week when record amounts of rain lashed southeastern Europe, turning the Sava river and its tributaries in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia into raging torrents that burst their banks.
Almost 150,000 people were evacuated in the biggest exodus since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, including 30,000 in Serbia. Fifty-seven people perished.
Many in Mitric's village Zabrezje, just a few kilometres (miles) away from Obrenovac, the hardest hit Serbian town, woke up on May 16 before dawn to the terrifying sound of roaring water. "We could not even open the door to let the chickens out of their coop, poor creatures," said Mitric's neighbour Mileva Rankovic, 65.
It could be weeks before many of the evacuees will be allowed to return. First the debris must be cleared and their houses and farms declared disease-free. For some, there will be no home to return to. More than a half of Obrenovac's 25,000 inhabitants fled, and many still have no news of friends and relatives -- and pets in many cases -- and the state of their houses, or if they still existed.
Those who had no one to accomodate them were temporarily settled in more than 40 make-shift shelters in Belgrade in sports halls, student dormitories and hotels."More than 12,000 people have passed through the shelters in Belgrade and around 4,000 of them are still there," said Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali.
- 'You want to cry instead of them' -
Thousands of Red Cross workers, students and professionals are helping the evacuees, distributing food, hygienic necessities, clothes and medicine. In the sports hall visited by AFP, mattresses covered with light-blue sheets or sleeping bags were carefully aligned on a basketball court, while groups of neighbours exchanged the latest news. More than 50 psychologists and therapists have joined forces via social media to offer help to those in need.
"They are still in a state of shock and we offer so called psychological first aid," child psychologist Katarina Stevanov told AFP.
The most important was to "tell them that it is normal to feel sad, depressed or shocked," she said. "You listen to their stories and you want to cry instead of them."
- Nightmares -
"Nights are the worst. Three days have passed and I still hear the cries of howling dogs shrieking in the eery silence," said Verica Papic, 52, one of 400 in the Pionir sports hall. When the waters starting rising, she and two family members, together with 30 neighbours, moved from the lower floors of their building to the loft.
One of the others rescued with her was 29-year old Vesna Pajic, now one of 300 young mothers put up in Belgrade hotels. Their menfolk have returned home to help clear the debris. "I am calm now, but I still dream of this horrible day me and my 20-month old daughter spent hidden in our attic awaiting rescuers," she told AFP.
The hotel's management set aside a conference hall for children to play in, while volunteers gather groups of older ones in classrooms to do schoolwork and give a semblance of normality. "It is like we are on a field trip, but I want to go home," said one of them, nine-year old Jana."
End.
Also See: A bright spot to this tragedy.
Catastrophic Floods Bring Down Bosnia Ethnic Barriers
When Ibro Begic decided to tackle the hazardous mountain road to reach those stricken by record floods near his Bosnian town, he was also challenging deep ethnic divisions left over from the brutal conflict of the 1990s.
When news reached him last week that the Serb-populated town of Doboj had been inundated, Begic immediately called on 10 friends to put together a relief operation.
It was a generous move, made remarkable by the fact that Begic is a Bosnian Muslim and a former soldier who fought the Serbs during the country's horrific civil war between 1992 and 1995.
"During the war, we were in enemy armies," he told AFP. "But the war is history. Humanity is something else."
Having gathered supplies including milk, sheets and rubber boots, Begic set off along the mountain pass -- the only road still open to Doboj from his town of Tesanj in central Bosnia.
He says the response he received from the Serbs in Doboj, one of the worst-hit towns where at least 20 people have died or are missing from the floods, was immense gratitude mixed with "shock".
"God asks us all to help each other in need. I am certain that the Serbs would do the same," Begic said.
- 'A turning point' -
It is certainly not the only instance in Bosnia where the difficult legacy of the war -- which has left the country politically divided between Serbs, Croats and Muslims -- was put to one side during the devastating flooding of the past week.
The small town of Zepce, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) further south from Tesanj, is mostly populated by Croats.
When a stream of Muslims began to arrive here from villages dotted around the region, few expected a warm welcome. The experience was a painful reminder of the war when tens of thousands were expelled from their homes by both Croats and Serbs.
But this time around, they were met with nothing but friendship.
A local high school gym in Zepce was ready to shelter the first group of evacuees from the Muslim village of Zeljezno Polje.
One of the villagers, Elvir Cizmic, a soldier during the war, told AFP: "Honestly, I did not expect such a solidarity. In just a few hours, people brought food, clothes and offered their homes to the families."
Around 30 to 40 people, mainly elderly women, were sheltering in the school when AFP visited, while dozens of young volunteers moved between them offering assistance.
"No one asked us for our name or our religion. They helped us in a way that I would not expect even from Muslims," Hanifa Masic, a 68-year-old evacuee, told AFP.
She hugged one of the young volunteers, a Croat called Ivana Grlic, who looked happy to help.
For Cizmic, the disaster marks a "turning point in relations between the three communities".
"I believe it will greatly help to regain trust between the people who had been pushed into the war," he said.
- 'Solidarity' -
Like nothing else in the past two decades, the natural disaster has allowed people to ignore the divisive nationalism spouted by many of their political leaders.>br>
End of excerpt
May this solidarity last and become contagious across the world. Take politics and the brainwashing of vindictive greedy politicians with selfish agendas out of the picture and I think we would find that globally we wouldn't hate as much as we do. We cannot afford to now. Our lives and those of our children are more important.
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UPDATE: 5-22-14: Mine explodes in Bosnia as floods clear-up begins
Bosnia flood destruction ‘as bad as the war’
In Pictures: Devastation in Bosnia
Climate change is a war- a war that leaves behind it a destruction that scars you physically and emotionally. We pay so much attention to climate change in regards to economic loss but the emotional pain associated with losing everything and especially losing a loved one is rarely if ever discussed. It is just as if not more important.
In this instance, so many had just rebuilt after the war that obliterated their country and now they lose everything again- this time to a war propagated by the entire human race against itself. We can no longer allow prejudices and hatred to stop us from joining together to preserve this planet and ourselves. If we do not we will lose it all.
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UPDATE: 5-20-14: Balkans Flooding: Rising Danube Waters Likely to Spare Region
Let us hope the Danube spares them. My heart also goes out to the animals that suffer in catastrophes like this. Get a good look at the future that's here now. Oh and by all means let's have some more debates because in lieu of actual action they are so helpful...
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Really hard to look at pictures and not break down. I remember Sandy with each one.
LIVE BLOGS AND UPDATES: DEVASTATING FLOODS IN BOSNIA AND SERBIA
Please do all you can to help the people there. Also, how ironic... The mouthpieces from the EPA and Dept of Energy are having a "White House Chat" on climate change today... this as Obama considers lifting the export ban on crude oil. They are all so out of touch it is criminal at this point.
More updates on this will follow.
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Bosnia, Serbia Experiencing Worst Flooding In Their History
(Reuters) - More than 20 people have been killed in the worst floods in more than a century in Serbia and Bosnia, authorities said on Saturday, with thousands evacuated from towns still under threat from rising rivers.
The death toll in Bosnia alone reached 19, including nine found on Saturday when waters receded from the northeastern town of Doboj.
Thousands of volunteers joined soldiers, police and fire-fighters in building flood barriers made of sandbags in the Serbian capital Belgrade and the western town of Sabac.
The River Sava hit its highest-recorded level in Serbia, the army said, rising at a rate of three centimeters (one inch) per hour after several days of the heaviest rainfall in almost 120 years.
Three people were confirmed dead in Serbia by Friday, and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said there were more fatalities in the town of Obrenovac, 30 km (18 miles) southwest of Belgrade, where soldiers deployed huge amphibious vehicles to rescue hundreds of people crammed into a primary school.
Authorities in Serbia said they would not give a death toll for Obrenovac, a town of some 30,000 people, until the waters had receded and the extent of the damage was clear.
A Reuters photographer said the entire town center was submerged under two to three meters (seven to 10 feet) of water.
End of excerpt
Update: Serbia and Bosnia floods: More than 30 dead, thousands evacuated after days of record rainfall
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Bosnia Serbia Floods
Live Internet site where information and photos are being uploaded.
Now there are fears regarding River Sava. Four months worth of rain fell in just a few days.
Balkan floods: Fears of new surge on Serbia's River Sava
Emergency workers in Serbia are preparing for a "flood wave" on one of the country's main rivers.
Water levels on the River Sava are expected to peak later, threatening the country's biggest power plant.
It comes after the worst floods in the Balkans for decades left at least 20 dead and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
In Bosnia-Hercegovina, landslides have buried houses and disturbed landmines laid during the war in the 1990s.
The floods are also affecting Croatia.
Three months' worth of rain fell on the region in just a few days, causing rivers to burst their banks and sweep into people's homes. The death toll is expected to rise.
Flood alerts are still in place in many areas of Serbia and northern Bosnia, according to the EU Floods Directive.
The rain has finally stopped in Belgrade, reports the BBC's Guy De Launey in the Serbian capital.
But officials fear water flowing from neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia could cause a "flood wave" on the River Sava on Sunday evening.
Emergency workers and volunteers have stacked sandbags along the river in Belgrade and other towns such as Sabac and Sremska Mitrovica.
End of excerpt.
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How ironic the coal powered station has not only been closed down but that it is named after Nicola Tesla, a brilliant man who devoted his life not to these dirty energy sources but to free energy.
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Bosnia and Serbia floods: thousands flee as death toll rises
Many in Bosnia lost homes they had only just rebuilt after the war, which claimed 100,000 lives and devastated the impoverished country.
In Serbia, eight deaths were reported and emergency crews and soldiers were using boats and helicopters to rescue thousands trapped in the town of Obrenovac, near Belgrade. Authorities also ordered residents of another nearby small town, Baric, to leave immediately on Saturday afternoon. Many hurriedly climbed into buses and military trucks to get away.
Officials said more than 16,000 people have been evacuated from flood-hit regions in Serbia, many finding shelter in schools and sports halls. Lines of mattresses covered the floors of Belgrade schools, with frightened survivors describing unstoppable torrents that surged in a matter of minutes.
Mirjana Senic, who lives in the centre of Obrenovac, said that "we thought we had it pretty bad ... [but] only when they evacuated us and when we actually saw the amount of water in other parts of town did we realise that we were lucky."
The flooding in Obrenovac is threatening the Nikola Tesla power plant, Serbia's biggest. Plant capacity had already been cut after a nearby coal mine was flooded and authorities urged residents to save energy to avoid brown-outs.
Prime minister Aleksandar Vucic told a press conference a new wave of flooding on the Sava would hit on Sunday evening.
"Our primary concern is to protect the power plant," Vucic said. "We are doing all we can."
End of excerpt:
I would think it is time to rethink your source of energy.
This is a huge catastrophe occurring, yet with little to no real media coverage. How can we ever expect to raise awareness and urgency when these now constant extreme events are ignored by the media as a whole?
How many more climate "conferences" will the rich fly to in the next few years pretending to lead while people continue to die due to effects of stronger storms, floods and droughts? Really, is this not a relevant question? I think it is, however, if you ask that exact same question on Climate Reality's Facebook page as I did it apparently gets your comments removed and being banned from the page.
What is really going on here? We're on the same side are we not?
How many more people have to die while organizations and politicians on all sides play politics with this as the media continues to act as a willing accomplice for the fossil fuel industry? If any organizations or persons think banning me from asking this truthful question is going to stop me from asking it they are mistaken.
WE HAVE CROSSED A TIPPING POINT and need to have people understand it. Furthermore, we need to stop stalling and feigning leadership in conferences behind closed doors and really listen to scientists now who tell us that we must leave remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground!
More extreme weather can be expected
Due to jet stream changes as a result of Arctic amplification these extreme events are also being amplified. We have loaded the hydrologic cycle and now feedbacks are also exacerbating the effects. Britain, Bolivia, Bosnia, Florida, NJ, NY, China, Europe and on and on. A global catastrophe at our doorstep NOW. This isn't just about renewable energy now. This is also about preparation, adaptation and humanity. If this is what we see now imagine in twenty years with our fossil fuel use unabated. Now is not the time to stifle the voices of people who care!
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Another menacing effect:
Bosnia Floods Create Land Mine Risk
Authorities have spent two decades trying to unearth the 1 million land mines planted during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Before the floods, nearly 120,000 remained in 9,416 marked minefields.
Then floods washed away river banks and fueled landslides that have unearthed minefield warning signs and, in many cases, the unexploded booby traps themselves.
An official at Bosnia's Mine Action Center, Sasa Obradovic, said his agency would deploy mine-hunting scouts starting Monday.
"Mines have surfaced now in areas where they have never been," he said.
The unearthing of mines in Bosnia could create an international problem as flood waters carry the weapons downstream. Bosnia's tributaries feed the Sava River, which runs along the Croatia border and meets the Danube in Serbia. The Danube then flows through Bulgaria and Romania into the Black Sea.
Experts warn that mines could travel through half of southeast Europe or get stuck in the turbines of a hydroelectric dam.
End of excerpt
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