Kostajnica Municipality's Civil Protection headquarters expects the river Una to swell significantly overnight, the head of this northern Bosnian Municipality, Drago Bundalo, said on Tuesday.
“We did everything we could, we built levees, helped people secure their homes as much as possible, and we also have four pumps that are already pumping the water out of cellars,” Bundalo said.
When it comes to local roads, he added that Una had already started spilling over the highway to Kozarska Dubica at the very exit from the Kostajnica Municipality, but should it be closed, they have alternative roads.
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Bundalo also noted that the Municipality has no landslides, which is a mitigating circumstance.
Una river's level was at 445 centimetres at 9 pm, Tuesday, which is 40 centimetres higher than on Tuesday morning when the Municipality began implementing emergency flood measures.
This year's floods began on Monday when heavy rains caused rivers across the country to swell, flooding town and homes. Even though the damages will not be as high as the devastating 2014 floods, when they reached some €2 billion, the authorities expect the bill to be high.
According to Bosnia's Assistant Security Minister, Samir Agic, the residents and the local authorities were warned on time, but the lack of coordination and command system in crises situations prevented the competent authorities from doing more on the protection of properties and infrastructure.
So far, the authorities recorded no casualties.
