Romanian emergency crews intervened in 47 localities across 16 counties and in Bucharest following heavy rains and storms during the night of Tuesday, October 7, to Wednesday, October 8. The red code alert is expected to last until Wednesday afternoon, and orange and yellow codes will be in place until midnight.
In Bucharest and Ilfov county, the number of interventions is increasing by the hour, with dozens of fallen trees and damaged cars, amid the red weather warning for heavy rainfall. In the last 24 hours, firefighters in the capital carried out 38 operations. According to the latest information cited by Digi24, 18 damaged cars and 25 fallen trees have been reported.
According to the Bucharest water authority Apa Nova, the Romanian capital saw 96% of the average monthly precipitation for October in just over 20 hours, laying stress on the city’s sewage system.
“The rainfall event was uniformly distributed across Bucharest, and the amount of precipitation led to a peak flow through the sewer system of ~112 m³/s, comparable to the average annual flow of the Prut River (110 m³/s), and a total volume of over 4.9 million m³, representing ~33% of the storage capacity of Lake Morii,” the company added.
At the same time, Metrorex teams intervened to drain water after leaks were reported at the Eroilor 1 and Eroilor 2 subway stations. Company representatives stated that there are no disruptions in train traffic and that the situation is being monitored.
“Infiltrations have also appeared in the underground infrastructure, located in an area naturally exposed to such situations,” the subway company said.
In Constanța County, two cars were swept away by the floodwaters, and firefighters used boats to rescue the people trapped by the water. Traffic is difficult throughout the county on Wednesday morning, as this has been among the hardest hit regions by rainfall. Several county roads are closed due to flooding between the localities of Dorobanțu and Nicolae Bălcescu.
Meanwhile, seven localities are without electricity in Prahova County. Among them, four experience a total outage.
Similarly, Giurgiu County is under a red weather warning for torrential rains until 3:00 PM. During this period, “rainfall amounts between 80 and 100 liters per square meter, locally even 120–140 l/sqm, may be recorded, with occasional lightning strikes.” In this county, emergency services worked to evacuate water from 17 yards, homes, or indoor spaces in the city of Giurgiu.
So far, no injuries or deaths have been reported.
“We had a situation where a tree fell on a moving car, but fortunately, the occupants were not injured,” said the head of the Emergency Situations Department, Raed Arafat. “Serious situations can arise at any moment. Orange alerts can turn into red alerts, and if messages with recommendations are issued, we ask the population to pay attention,” he added.
Arafat explained that the authorities are constantly assessing the situation and are preparing for possible aerial interventions. “We are analyzing whether the Ministry of Internal Affairs aviation can be ready to intervene in case such situations arise, if weather conditions allow.”
(Photo source: Departamentul pentru Situatii de Urgenta on Facebook)
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