The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is providing international support to assist the Romanian Red Cross which is providing emergency relief to communities affected by the floods caused by the overflow of the Danube river due to heavy rains and melting snow. The International Federation has released nearly CHF 170,000 (108,037 Euro/133,215 USD) from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to support this emergency response.
The International Federation is deploying an international and regional field assessment team to Bucharest to establish the needs of those affected in four counties in Western and South-Western parts of Romania: Dolj, Gorj, Mehedinti and Olt.
The Romanian Red Cross has already started to distribute blankets, sleeping bags, kitchen equipment, clothing and drinking water and food to affected families.
This situation has worsened over the last 20 days, due to seasonal floods, resulting from rapidly rising temperatures, melting snows and heavy rainfall. Other countries are also experiencing wide spread flooding including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia Montenegro. Red Cross
National Societies are actively helping the communities to cope with the situation.
Red Cross of Serbia and Montenegro has already received an allocation of CHF 128,000 (100,000USD/ EUR 81,000) from the International Federation’s emergency fund. So far 1,300 rubber boots and 1,200 hygiene kits have been bought and distributed thanks to the funding. In addition 1,200 food parcels, 500 baby parcels, 7,000 litres of disinfectant, 10 community hygiene kits and 800 mattresses are also being procured.
Meanwhile the Czech Red Cross is distributing dryers and replacing damaged house equipment, the Slovak Red Cross is distributing water pumps, dryers and clothes, the Hungarian Red Cross is distributing mattresses and blankets and the Croatian Red Cross have distributed water, food, blankets and humidity dryers to people in need.