Monday, April 21, 2014



BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) (click here) Authorities say three people have died and 250 were evacuated after heavy rain and flooding hit southern Romania over the weekend.

Interior minister Gabriel Oprea said an 80-year-old man in the southern county of Olt died after a mudslide hit his home and another man in a village near Bucharest also died in the floods. Emergency services spokeswoman Madalina Epure said a 13-year-old boy had been found dead Monday having been swept away by floodwaters.

Oprea said three people remain unaccounted-for. Emergency services carried out some 550 rescue operations.

Eighty-six villages in southern Romania were flooded. Worst affected were three southern counties that lie along the River Vedea.

The River Vedea drains into the Danube River noted in the red line on the map. The Danube's headwaters is in Germany. The River Vedea is in a basin in Romania. There was just no place for the water to go.