A difficult night for the residents of several Montana settlements. There are flooded houses, evacuated people and drowned animals. The mayor of the village of Lehchevo, Alexander Alexandrov, called for help and announced that a partial state of disaster has been declared in the municipality, NOVA reported.
„The situation is dangerous, not to say tragic. In about 40 minutes, over 80 liters per square meter of rain fell. A rescue operation is currently underway to remove two elderly ladies who are in trouble“, announced the mayor of the village of Lehchevo, Alexander Alexandrov.
The water from the torrential rain came in minutes and began to flood houses and yards in the Boychinovo village of Lehchevo. Mario Todorov's grandmothers found themselves in a water trap. The two elderly women, aged 93 and 70, had to be taken out by boat. The incoming water flooded the basement and ground floor of Iliya Iliev.
“We tried to block it off and put cement blocks on the door, but there was a lot of water… Water has come in many times, but here it is on a slope and the water was flowing out, but now I have no words“, he points out.
They tried to stop the water from entering their ground floor, but they failed. Five fire brigade teams have been sent to the village.
„Heavy rain in the Boychinovo villages of Kobylyak and Lehchevo. At first, there were many reports of people in distress, but in the end, we visited all the endangered addresses with the two mayors and evacuated two women in Lehchevo. First, the firefighters and rescuers came in and we put them on high ground, because there was two meters of water in the yard. The water is draining, but it is still raining. The women were evacuated and are in a safe place with relatives,“ said the director of the Regional Directorate “Fire Safety and Population Protection“in Montana Ventsislav Raykov.
According to the fire department, the drainage did not start immediately.
“At the moment, it is dangerous if we start draining and more water is coming in that the foundations of the houses will collapse“, added Raykov.
Due to the heavy rain, the road between the Boychinovo villages of Gromshin and Kobylyak and Lehchevo was flooded and impassable for hours. People in Lehchevo stayed awake all night because the rain did not stop.
In Sofia, the heavy rains caused chaos on the roads. In the capital last night, 40 liters per sq. m. fell. Citizens reported on social media that the roads had turned into full-flowing rivers.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Sofia residents were left without electricity due to an accident.