ANM “might announce flood emergency”

The “Romanian Waters” National Administration (ANAR) and the National Meteorological Administration (ANM) might announce, on Wednesday, a “possible emergency situation” regarding the floods, declared, on Tuesday evening, the Minister of Administration and Interior, Gabriel Berca.

The official did not give more details about the subject, but he said at the end of his declaration he hoped there will be no “problems with the floods”.

“There is no forecast about floods. After the preliminary discussions I had with them, I do not think we will have big problems during the next few days, but we need to be prepared”.

“From this point of view we asked the prefects to monitor the risk points in every county because they know each other, we have risk maps, well-established procedures and we will keep being alert”, Gabriel Berca stated.

Gabriel Berca presented a balance sheet of the problems caused by the recent snowfalls.

The Minister of Administration and Interior said that 408 localities were still isolated on Tuesday night, and 200 segments of county roads were impracticable in all the 25 counties where consequences of the extreme meteorological conditions appeared.

Gabriel Berca mentioned that 4,800 employees of the Ministry of Administration and Interior are on the field.

“I want to thank them one more time and to tell them that I am with them from now on as well, because we still have things to do in different areas where the emergency situation demands it”.

“We have almost 2,000 specialized vehicles and right now our priority is to release and clear the road and rail traffic, to supply food and water for the isolated people, to provide emergency medical assistance and to move the persons from the isolated localities”, Gabriel Berca declared.

The Minister of Administration and Interior specified that the helicopters intervened, on Tuesday, in many cases.

Gabriel Berca also said that he had asked the prefects to collaborate with the local authorities, and regardless of the political orientation, to help, to be alert and take action, given the fact that the effects of the bad weather will be visible during the next few days as well.

“We also asked the prefects to keep monitoring the way in which the supplies are distributed and to go exactly where we are needed, to the citizens, in order not to see supplies that are kept in storehouses, in the hands of some mayors and local councillors instead of being distributed”.

“We had some notifications regarding this” the Minister of Administration and Interior stated.

Translated by: Camelia-Aura Barbu
MA Student, MTTLC, University of Bucharest