LJUBLJANA, Aug 8 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Clean-up operations in Slovenia were in full flow Saturday after torrential rains and severe floods brought havoc to the Alpine country in its worst natural disaster since independence, officials said.
As heavy rainfall started to ease, with the weather situation gradually normalising, the extent of the damage caused by the devastating floods was being assessed.
“This is the worst natural disaster in Slovenia’s (recent) history, it has affected two thirds of the country,” Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said after National Security council meeting.
The scale of the damage from the floods is estimated to exceed half a billion euros, Golob said.
Flash floods and landslides caused by heavy rainfall that started Thursday had submerged large swaths of central and northern Slovenia, cutting off access to villages and disrupting traffic.
So far at least three people — two Dutch citizens and a Slovenian — have died, Slovenian news agency STA reported, with authorities retrieving a man’s body on the outskirts of Ljubljana on the banks of the Sava river Saturday.
“According to initial information, his death might have been caused by the floods,” STA quoted a police statement as saying.
The Krsko nuclear power plant next to the swelling Sava river terminated the notice of “unusual event” declared late Friday, after the river’s level had lowered again.
