Balkans: Catastrophic Floods Hit Balkans, Raising Fears for Land Mines and Power Plants

May 18, 2014 | Rick Lyman, The New York Times
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WARSAW — At least 33 people have died and tens of thousands have been evacuated in Serbia and Bosnia during three days of torrential rains that fed the most intense flooding the region has seen since records began to be kept more than a century ago.By Sunday, thousands of landslides had swept away homes and turned idyllic hillside communities into cascades of muck and debris. Farm fields were washed away, coal mines flooded. Bridges were knocked from their moorings and sent floating down swollen rivers like barges. Nearly 100,000 people were without power in Serbia alone, officials said, as workers scrambled to protect the country’s two largest power stations from rising waters.