Floods change landscape in Kamnik area

"I was awakened by an awful sound of roaring as the creek swept away cars and rolled in rocks," Stane Leskošek, a Črna pri Kamniku local, told the STA.

Seeking refuge from the floods, he fled to higher ground, and hours passed before he managed to get in contact with his neighbours. The citizens of the Črna village were cut off from the rest of the country the entire first day of last weekend's floods, he said, adding this was the worst part of the whole ordeal.

"I thought other people did not even know what happened in Črna." On the second day after the first wave of severe floods hit, he heard the comforting sounds of heavy machinery attempting to break through the mud and landslides.

Roads leading to villages in the area were more or less reopened on Monday, so that heavy machinery and relief and rescue vehicles could get to where they are needed, but there are still certain villages that are cut-off. Some 300 firefighters are attempting to get to them, Mayor Slapar said.

The worst-hit in the area were the valleys of Črna, Kamniška Bistrica and Bistrica. The Tunjice and Laniše valleys have been completely reshaped by the raging local rivers, which deposited gravel up to one metre high and filled in parts of these valleys, the mayor said.

In the wake of the floods that hit two-thirds of the country several rivers have slightly changed their courses or switched to nearby ones, for example, the Meža in the northern Koroška region mistaking a road for a river bed. Noting that it is a process of reshaping landscapes as old as time, experts say that in the era of modern civilization this will have to be tackled carefully.

Same as in other affected areas, the clean-up effort is in full swing in the Kamnik area. The municipality's public utility company is doing its best to repair the water supply system, but certain places are still short on drinking water, and so water tanks have been provided.

Electricity is back on, except in certain areas where they are using generators until power is restored.

There is enough food supplies, but what the locals are missing in the recovery effort is boots, since theirs have been either swept away or destroyed by the floods, Leskošek said.

The municipality is facing enormous amounts of waste post-floods, a problem that has been reported by others as well. The state will have to step in and help, the mayor said, same as with all the other relief efforts.

The full recovery will take years, Slapar said, since the valleys, river beds and retaining walls will have to be rebuild.