In August 2016, several rainstorms hit the western and northwestern parts of the

Republic of Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

. On 6 August 2016, a storm with strong winds and flooding hit

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

and the western parts of the country, leaving at least 21 people dead and dozens injured or missing.Macedonia declares state of emergency after 21 die in flash floods
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

'', 7 August 2016.Macedonia storm: Deadly freak floods hit Skopje
''BBC'', 7 August 2016.

Events

In the afternoon of 6 August 2016 at 5:30 pm

CEST CEST or cest may refer to: * Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone * Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory * Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in ...

, a heavy rain began falling in the area of the country's capital

, resulting in strong winds and floods. The rain was reported to have stopped around 9:30 am CEST the next day, with the peak of the storm in the middle of the night, around 3:30 am CEST. Macedonia's weather service reported that fell in two hours on Skopje, which is equivalent to the average for an entire month of August. The water level of some of the areas affected reached a height of , which was being combed by Macedonia's police and army for survivors and other victims. Meteorologists reported that more than 800 lightning strikes were recorded in the first two hours of the storm, which went on for about five hours in total.At least 20 dead as storms, flash floods lash Skopje in Macedonia
''

ABC News Australia ABC News, or ABC News and Current Affairs, is a public news service produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcasting within Australia and the rest of the world, the service covers both Local news, local and World news, world af ...

'', 7 August 2016. At least 21 people died, with dozens of others injured or missing. The local media reported that the ambulances were called 65 times in the city, more than 20 people were treated and the army were called in to help. Three villages to the northeast of the city were cut off due to landslides.

Reactions

The deputy prime minister Nikola Todorov called the storm a "catastrophe of unprecedented proportion". Mayor of Skopje Koce Trajanovski said that the city never experienced such a disaster. The government declared

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...

and 8 August was declared national day of mourning.

References

{{reflist, 30em Macedonian floods Macedonian floods

Floods A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

Macedonian floods Natural disasters in North Macedonia Water in North Macedonia Macedonian floods, 2016

Events

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See also

References