Flooding in Serbia

Here is a recent update and prayer request from our friends in Serbia.

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Dear friends near and far, 

We would like to ask you for your urgent and fervent prayers for Serbia. We have had heavy rainfalls for 3 days now, with the amount of rain equaling 3 month quantities (the same situation is in Bosnia and Herzegovina). It caused local rivers overflowing (rising even to 4 meters in just 1 day) in majority of Serbian towns and cities, leaving thousands of citizens' homes and land flooded, their livestock and domestic animals drowned:-(.  People were completely unprepared for this and in shock. So far, there are 5 casualties, but the numbers are not complete unfortunately. A massive storm churned river waters and triggered landslides across the country, leaving roads and railways underwater. Some motorways and roads are blocked, bridges torn down, and some towns in Serbia are still cut off from the civilization. This is the worst flooding ever in the history of Serbia.The Serbian government declared a state of emergency and natural disaster yesterday. 

As we are writing this, we know for sure that 7.520 people were evacuated until this morning,135,000 homes are without electricity, 19 towns are flooded. 

The critical is the town of Obrenovac (suburb of Belgrade) which is being evacuated in total as it is 90% flooded. It has around 18 000 people in addition to be evacuated. 

Another critical municipality is Sabac, in western Serbia (around 120 thousand people). It is close to the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the great danger is that the river Sava overflows during the night and tomorrow and endangers a huge population. At this point, over 3000 volunteers are traveling towards Sabac from all over Serbia to help the exhausted police forces, the army, the firemen fill the sand bags and try to stop the river overflowing.

Very difficult situation is in other towns like Lazarevac, Valjevo, Paraćin, Smederevska Palanka, Svilajnac, Petrovac na Mlavi. Majority of these towns don't have water or electricity or both.

For a small and financially struggling country like Serbia, this sort of thing has a Katrina-like impact:-(.

We would be thankful to you to pray for the following: 

• That God prevents rivers from more overflowing and the rainfall stops (especially it is critical for the town of Sabac and Obrenovac tonight), but also others.
• That all the people are safely evacuated, with no more casualties.
• That enough funds are raised in near future to make up for the losses people faced and these are huge (some are left without everything as their houses are lost in landslides and land, as their only source of income, is flooded). 
• For enough food, clothes, blankets and other needed items for thousands who are placed in schools, hospitals, hotels and other premises until the crisis is over.
• For enough technical equipment to help pump the water from the flooded houses all over Serbia (EU, Russia, Israel already sent some help).
  
• That God protects us from infections (in water and in food) due to animal decomposition which is currently underway.
• All the crops in the flooded areas are completely devastated, which will hugely impact fragile Serbian economy. Pray for God's miracle and grace in this area and for complete restoration.
  
• The flooding of bigger rivers is to be expected, so pray for the protection of rivers Sava and Danube. 
  
• It will take months for people to be able to start living normally, pray for God's mercy and protection and wisdom of the government officials in how to help and what to do. The damage is probably millions of euros. 
  

Following are some links showing a dramatic situation: 
This one is with Serbian comments from the Serbian national broadcaster Prva TV:  http://www.prva.rs/web-tv/info/exploziv/12005/exploziv---16052014/34911/potop.html   
This one is from the foreign media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlY8UbF99tI

We also attach few photos. 

Feel free to share this email with your churches, home groups, forward to your friends and cover us in prayers:-). Thank you so much for your support. It is priceless.  

God bless you, 

Jelena