Following two days of torrential downpours, thousands of hectares of Albania are underwater with citizens being evacuated and the army being drafted in to help rescue entire families.
The entire country has been impacted by heavy rains with many streets in the capital of Tirana underwater causing significant delays. But the situation is particularly acute in the north of the country in Lezhe County and Shkoder County.
On Monday, the Defence Minister announced that 240 members of the armed forces with 25 specially equipped vehicles were being drafted in to help evacuate families. At least 50 families have been evacuated in Shkoder and Malesia e Madhe while at least 500 others are facing flooded houses and property.
Problems are also found in Durres, Kukes, Tropoje, and Elbasan and hundreds of homes are without electricity. Others face devastation as their farmland has been destroyed and livestock drowned.
The situation is critical in a number of hydropower plants as the rate of water supplying them from the Shala, Valbona, Gomina and Berisha rivers is flowing at a rate of 4,000 m3/second, exceeding the previous record of 1,300 m3/second. Cities from north to south reported between 67-110 millimetres of rain in just 24 hours.
There have been multiple landslides and at least two people have been killed.
(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)
Source: euractiv.com
