500 people evacuated, situation most difficult in Grabovac

KLADOVO - About 500 people who were almost impossible to reach by land have been evacuated from Tekija and other villages in the municipality of Kladovo, eastern Serbia, where rain is still falling, and the situation is most serious is in the village of Grabovac, Belgrade-based B92 media house reports.

Locals from Tekija are being evacuated by boats and the journey takes about an hour and a half. The vessels are transporting them to the Djerdap hotel in Kladovo, and a large number of people were sent to the hospital from there.

People from Tekija have asked to be delivered food and water.

Landslides practically divided Tekija into two parts, and rescuers are trying to break through the layers of soil with bulldozers.

Ninety percent of residential buildings is buried under mud and debris brought by flood waters. A landslide on the hill above Tekija is still moving, causing additional problems, particularly to the locals who did not want to be evacuated last night.

"We are working to clear up debris and to evacuate the rest of the population who yesterday refused to be evacuated. The landslides are merciless and strong, and the situation is getting worse by the hour. Canned food and drinking water is being delivered to all endangered areas," says Kladovo municipal president Radovan Arezina said, quoted by Belgrade-based daily Blic.

The evacuation was carried out by a boat and Gendarmerie off-road vehicles, the only vehicles able to cross the stream that transects the road to Kladovo.

Grabovica, another village in the Kladovo municipality, is still largely submerged by floodwaters and is literally cut off from the rest of the world. Rescue crews have been transporting sick people from the...