John Sparrow and Janos Berze-Simko in north-eastern Hungary
With tens of thousands of people uprooted by some of the region's worst flooding in living memory, the International Federation today appealed for 1.5 million Swiss francs to strengthen Red Cross relief operations in Hungary, Romania and Ukraine. But, it has warned, the region's suffering will not recede with the water. Silent disasters will now bite even harder.
The floods have devastated a wide area of north-eastern Hungary, north-western Romania and western Ukraine after rapid snow melt and heavy rains caused the Tisza river and its tributaries to rise to record levels. Hundreds of hectares of farmland and communities have been overwhelmed, and defences have broken, exacerbating the situation. Caught up in a sudden exodus, many fled their homes with little more than they could carry and prospects for them will be bleak for weeks to come. But the floods have centred on already deprived and under-developed regions which reflect the social cost of structural adjustments in the transition from command to free-market economies.
Homelessness and other poverty-related problems have burgeoned in the region, and the elderly, the disabled, the long-term unemployed and other vulnerable groups are being marginalised by economic reform that does not consider the social safety net. The impact of the floods on this grave situation must not be underestimated, says the International Federation. Pain and dislocation will be long term. Said Helena Korhonen, the International Federation's regional head for Central Europe, "What a changed environment has not taken from many, the floods may have washed away. It is time more attention was also paid to the silent disasters of the area."
Day and night an exodus has occurred from a once delightful Hungarian countryside, the population taking to the road in anything mobile. Horses and carts, and old automobiles, have ferried families and precious livestock from the threat of inundation, pigs in towed trailers, tethered cattle running behind. Still many animals have been abandoned, and veterinary officials expect many will die, adding to the rural demise.
Said a tearful middle-aged woman whose family sought help from the Hungarian Red Cross in Nyiregyhaza, the main town in flood-hit Szabolcs county, "I wish we had stayed. We had very little but when that has gone what is the point of living?" Some villagers have refused to run, stubbornly protecting their property. In the village of Tarpa, 1,500 people sought safety on nearby high ground but then found themselves cut off, surrounded by flood water. Others living there offered shelter, many camped down in wine cellars, and water-borne Red Cross rescue teams ferried in food, drinking water and other essentials.
By Wednesday night 50 square kilometres of Szabolcs had been inundated but although the rivers had stopped rising the water continued to spread, finding its way through breached river defences, and around obstacles, seeking its own level. The authorities deliberately breached a main dyke road in strategic places to direct the water to low-lying ground where it would do least damage, easing the pressure on defensives. But by Thursday night nearer 80 square kilometres of the county was flooded, and a far greater area - 35 kilometres long and 20 kilometres across at its widest points - lay abandoned between the Tisza and the Ukrainian border. Somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 people had fled, and 20 Hungarian villages had been evacuated. The only sound to be heard was that of terrified animals. Said Marta Kovi, the county's Red Cross branch secretary, "The emergency is only the beginning. We will be needed even more when people return, and start to count their losses."
Romania has not fared better. From March 3 to 8, the floods swept over 11 districts, again in one of the poorest corners of the country. Some 175 communities were affected, close to 4,000 families, and of those evacuated some were still living in tents Thursday night because no other accommodation was available. The situation, the Romanian Red Cross reported, was deteriorating. Western Ukraine was looking at 10,000 acres of the agricultural Zakarpatska region under water.