A. Situation analysis
Description of the disaster In the afternoon of 6 August 2016, torrential rains caused flash floods in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, severely affecting the populated areas and agricultural regions in Skopje and Tetovo. The rain volume was measured at the quantity of 97 l/m2 accompanied by strong winds at around 100 km/h, which resulted in tremendous flash floods.
Subsequently, this led to loss of human lives and great material damage such as destroyed ring-roads, streets, demolished vehicles and infrastructure, including water channels. The most affected areas are located in the northern part of Skopje, where more than 70 per cent of the houses have been flooded, with completely destroyed pieces of furniture, personal belongings, food stocks and accompanying infrastructure.
The severe flash floods affected primarily two regions around the cities of Skopje and Tetovo. The most affected villages and communities by the flash floods are Chento, Indzikovo, Singelich, Stajkovci, Smilkovci, Creshevo, Viniche, Strachinci in the Skopje region and the villages of Shipkovica, Brodec, Veshala and Poroj in the Tetovo region.
In the surrounding of Skopje, where a new ring road is being built, most of the water channels were sealed during the construction works, which has caused massive water quantities to gather and to form a natural dam along the road side blocks. The accumulated water reached a critical level, the road collapsed and the water spilled towards the neighbouring villages causing flooding of over 7,000 houses. The floods unfortunately resulted in 22 casualties and over 60 injured persons as well as large material damage.
In Tetovo region the heavy rainfall resulted in flooding of the roads between the villages Shipkovica, Brodec, Veshala and Poroj, which has led to isolation of the villages. At the moment, there are road works for removal of mud and rocks.
The initial assessment indicates that around 7,000 houses out of the total number indicated below have been seriously affected by the floods.