Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia Desperately Need Our Help

Serbian authorities in Belgrade ordered the immediate evacuation of many villages and towns along the raging Sava River today, including Obrenovac, the town where soldiers, police and volunteers have been working around the clock to protect Serbia's main power plant, which is 20 kilometers (16 miles) upstream of the capital, Belgrade. Emergency crews have built high walls of sandbags, but it is far from clear that these dikes will withstand the onslaught of the coming river surge, which has been described as 3 to 4 meter tzunamis sweeping along the Sava River toward Belgrade and on to its juncture with the Danube. Serbia, Croatia and Herzegovina are experiencing the worst floods in southeastern Europe in more than a century. The cities of Orasje and Brcko in northeast Bosnia, where the Sava River forms the natural border with Croatia, were in danger of being overwhelmed. Officials in Brcko ordered six villages to be evacuated. Rescuers urged people to go to the balconies or rooftops of their houses with bright fabric to make themselves visible. The Brcko Mayor said that unless the Bosnian Army is able to reinforce from the air, the city of 70,000 will be flooded completely. According to the Weather Channel, the flooding in Bosnia, Serbia, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Croatia, started last Thursday after a slow-moving system dumped three months worth of rain onto the region in just three days : "A strong disturbance in the jet stream closed off into a swirling, stuck upper-level low near the Balkans, instead of sweeping through," said weather.com senior meteorologist Jon Erdman. "The result is persistent flooding." At least 44 people are thus far confirmed dead. Entire towns and villages are under 2 to 3 meters of water. More than 3,000 hills have collapsed into landslides and tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes. Others are marooned in their homes without food, water or electricity, even as bodies are being taken from other flooded homes. The Bosnian prime minister called the flood damage "immense," comparing it to the carnage during the country's 1992 to 1995 war that killed at least 100,000 people and left millions homeless. He said the flooding has so far destroyed about 100,000 houses and 230 schools and hospitals and left a million people without drinking water. Portable incinerators have been brought in to destroy the decaying corpses of drowned farm animals that represent a major health risk. Aside from sweeping away homes and barns, the landslides have carried land mines left over from the Balkan War, along with the warning signs posted to show their location, to entirely new, unknown, locations. ~~~~~ Dear readers, we don't need to dissect what is happening in the Balkans, an area of a quarter million square miles and 60 million people, where farming represents 50% of the economies and unemploynent ranges from 11% to 40%. Many of these often already-poor people, who lag behind the European Union in jobs, healthcare and education, have had everything swept away, including their farm animals and crops. They need everything their governments' calls for international aid can bring in to the rescue and rebuilding effort. One large international aid operation is aleady underway, with rescue helicopters from the European Union, America and Russia evacuating people from affected areas. But, much more help is now needed, particularly deliveries of food, clothing and bottled water. Please give what you can - through the Red Cross and Red Crescent or your local rescue fund effort - watch your local TV channels for fund information. Let us show our solidarity with these, our suffering fellow human brings.