{"id":237334,"date":"2016-08-07T15:06:16","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T15:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=237334"},"modified":"2016-08-07T15:06:16","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T15:06:16","slug":"freak-floods-kill-20-in-macedonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=237334","title":{"rendered":"Freak floods kill 20 in Macedonia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">At least 20 people have died in floods that hit the Macedonian capital, Skopje, following torrential rain.<\/p>\n<p>The victims&#8217; bodies were found on Sunday morning after the storm passed. Several people are still missing.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the victims drowned in their cars. Parts of the city&#8217;s ring road were swept away in the floods, dragging cars into nearby fields.<\/p>\n<p>Three-and-a-half inches (93mm) of rain fell in Skopje in the storm &#8211; more than the average for the whole of August.<\/p>\n<p>The water level reached as high as five feet (1.5 metres) in some of the affected areas, reports said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everything was a mess. Televisions, the fridge, the sofa, everything was floating&#8230; it was a nightmare,&#8221; said Baze Spriovski, a 43-year-old from Singelic in the outskirts of Skopje.<\/p>\n<p>Many homes remain flooded and without electricity; some are reported to have collapsed.<\/p>\n<p>The authorities have declared a crisis situation in Skopje and Tetovo for the next 15 days, the Macedonian Information Agency said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/152C\/production\/_90702450_hi034435311.jpg\" alt=\"a lorry on its side in a field, with two cars that have carved a path further in to the field\" width=\"603\" height=\"339\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/149C4\/production\/_90702448_bridgesmacedonia.jpg\" alt=\"man walking across makeshift walkway of wooden plans through floodwater, 7 August 2016\" width=\"619\" height=\"348\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/634C\/production\/_90702452_crashedcars.jpg\" alt=\"a pile of cars that has crashed together between some houses, 7 August 2016\" width=\"603\" height=\"339\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/DC64\/production\/_90702465_boyinfloods.jpg\" alt=\"boy running through floodwater next to abandoned car in busy street\" width=\"587\" height=\"330\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/12A84\/production\/_90702467_ringroad.jpg\" alt=\"cars stuck in the mud next to flooded ring road\" width=\"599\" height=\"394\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>The Mayor of Skopje, Kove Trajanovski, said: &#8220;This is a disaster. We have never experienced such a thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There were thunderbolts with lightning almost every second. It was really horrific,&#8221; said Biljana Joneska, 62, in Skopje.<\/p>\n<p>Local media reported that ambulances were called out 65 times across the city, more than 20 people were treated in hospital, and the army was called in to help.<\/p>\n<p>Three villages in the north-east of the country were cut off because of landslides.<\/p>\n<p>Police said about 70 vehicles were stuck because of one such incident between the villages of Stajkovci and Radisani.<\/p>\n<p>Health authorities have advised residents in the worst hit areas to use only bottled water or water from public authority cisterns for drinking and cooking.<\/p>\n<p>More rain is forecast for Sunday evening.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least 20 people have died in floods that hit the Macedonian capital, Skopje, following torrential rain. The victims&#8217; bodies were found on Sunday morning after the storm passed. Several people are still missing. Some of the victims drowned in their cars. Parts of the city&#8217;s ring road were swept away in the floods, dragging [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":237335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/237335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}