Slovenia's Prime Minister Estimates Flood Damages to Exceed €500 million
Two-thirds of Slovenia's territory have been affected by sudden floods over the past few days, causing damages that could surpass half a billion euros, said the country's Prime Minister, Robert Golob, on Saturday. He referred to the flood as the "worst natural disaster" in the country's history, as reported by the Slovenian Press Agency (STA).
According to the Associated Press, as of Friday, the flood, which began Thursday evening, resulted in landslides and at least three confirmed deaths. Houses have been demolished, bridges and roads destroyed, and water supply has been disrupted in some parts of the country. Golob has not yet declared a state of emergency.
"It's distressing to witness the devastation caused by the massive floods in Slovenia," wrote Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, on Twitter. "The EU stands by the Slovenian people. We will mobilize support if needed."
According to von der Leyen, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, who is Slovenian, is already in Ljubljana to discuss the situation with the Slovenian government.
During a press conference on Saturday, representatives from Slovenian environmental and water resource agencies stated that the weather situation is "slowly calming down," and the weather warning level has been lowered to yellow. However, they emphasized that "the situation on the ground is serious: rivers are still overflowing in much of the country, but the situation is not worsening as dramatically as it did yesterday."
Late on Saturday evening, authorities started evacuating residents from the Meža Valley due to an imminent large landslide, which, according to local media, is heading downstream along the river Črna towards Koroskem, one of the cities hardest hit by the massive flood.
Sudden floods have also been reported in neighboring Austria.
This comes after weeks of weather chaos in Europe. Scientists say that climate change will lead to extreme precipitation and sudden floods in certain parts of the world, although not all such events are directly linked to global warming.
As reported by The Gaze, NASA declared June 2023 as the hottest month in recorded history. For the third consecutive month, the global sea surface temperature set a record. Smoke plumes from the most destructive wildfire season in Canada reached Europe. Antarctica experienced the second consecutive month with a record-low sea ice extent.
In June 2023, there were nine tropical cyclones worldwide, and the global accumulated cyclone energy was nearly twice the average monthly energy.