Greetings. Welcome to today's statement,
where the situation with floods and landslides in Slovenia
will be presented by meteorologist Blaž Šter,
hydrologist Janez Polajnar,
the director of the Water Agency Neža Kodre,
and the commander of Civil Protection, Srečko Šestan.
I would like to invite our first speaker to the podium.
Go ahead, Mr. Šter.
Greetings.
Worsening conditions are now drawing to a close.
The clouds are clearing up, but we are expecting
another weather disturbance in the afternoon.
A storm line will form that will first cover the northwest
and then move toward the southeast.
This storm line could be accompanied by strong gusts of wind
and short showers, and tiny hail in Primorska.
Such a storm line would not be unusual in a normal summer,
but in this current situation it can also cause some problems.
There will be a strong north wind at the seaside,
but it will only last for about an hour or two
and it will quickly abate toward the evening.
We are expecting significantly milder weather in the coming days,
perhaps some storms tomorrow. It will be fairly cold,
temperatures will rise in the second half of the week,
but we expect no major rain at least until the end of the week.
Thank you, Mr. Šter. Are there any questions? Marta?
What does this mean for the flooded areas?
We can expect 20 or rather 10 to 30 mm of rain.
Hydrologist Janez Polajnar will tell you more.
Thank you. Mr. Janez Polajnar, go ahead.
Greetings.
As predicted, the centre of the flooding has moved to Pomurje,
along the river Mura,
which began rising further in the morning
and at Gornja Radgona we are recording
record-high water flow of the river Mura, 1450 m3/s.
The Mura's water flow came naturally from Austria due to the rain.
We are in contact with Austrian and Steiermark services,
who assure us that their hydroelectric power stations
did not cause the increased water flow in Slovenia.
We are expecting this water to run across Slovenia within 24 hours,
including across the damaged part of the levee.
The director of the Water Agency will say more on this.
But there are areas that are still flooded.
especially at the junction of the Sava and Krka rivers.
The Sava still has a high water flow, about 2500 m3/s.
It is diminishing, but this is a very high water flow,
while Krka has settled at approximately 280 m3/s,
which is not an extremely high water flow,
but because of the damming effect at the junction
due to the Sava being so high,
the outflow of the Krka into the Sava is slower
and flooding there is still ongoing.
Thankfully rivers elsewhere are declining
and returning to their beds.
We are expecting storms to pass over us in the next few hours
and because of the vulnerability of the terrain due to recent floods
we are expecting rainwater to stagnate in multiple areas,
even in areas where this is not usual.
Smaller torrents may also appear quickly
in all of the areas affected by floods in the past days,
Gorenjska, Koroška, Central Slovenia, around Ljubljana,
Pomurje and toward the evening Dolenjska as well.
Thank you. -Thank you.
Director of the Water Agency, Neža Kodre, go ahead.
Greetings from me as well. The Slovenian Water Agency
and out water management public services
are still in full activation and in the field.
Even though watercourses are settling,
we still needed intervention measures
to increase river flow.
All of these areas are experiencing landslides,
which require intervention measures.
At the same time, the lower stream of the Sava rose during the night,
which caused some flooding,
and intervention measures were needed there as well.
The levees along the Mura river were the most critical,
a good 10 metre section of the levee broke.
Despite all predictions by experts and others,
the Water Agency and the public services
fought with this part of the levee all night,
carried sandbags and materials,
and with the help of the army and their helicopter
managed to successfully repair the levee.
The levees on the Mura are currently functioning.
We also increased control along the Mura levees,
where the levees are a little lower or missing.
We are also actively cooperating with the Civil Protection
regarding measures and operations in this field.
As said, the Mura will remain high in this area.
It will keep rising for two hours, and, as Mr. Polajnar said,
we then expect it to stay high for 12 hours
and then very slowly begin to diminish.
We expect 48 more hours of activity on the Mura
and we hope we keep being as successful.
That is all, thank you.
Mr. Srečko Šestan will now come on.
He will also tell you how you can help.
Tomorrow a special app will launch
with all the information on the aid you wish to offer.
You can also view up-to-date information on gov.si/poplave,
as well as instructions
on how to act in case of floods or landslides. Go ahead, Mr. Šestan.
Thank you.
I will first add to the information that Petra provided
regarding offering help in the form of physical labour,
machinery and other options.
We assigned this task
to the regional command of Notranjska and the Coast
in order to relieve the workers that are working here.
A special app will launch tomorrow
in which everyone will be able to choose
from a list of items or activities that they wish to offer.
Through this app we will also have
a direct link to those in the field that require aid.
This will be managed by the members of the two aforementioned regions
in order to relieve the workers in Ljubljana and elsewhere.
I have some news. Some are bad, some are thankfully good.
I will point out two regions
and touch on the third that Neža mentioned.
The two regions that are critically inaccessible
are Koroška and the Upper Savinja Valley.
In Koroška, the attempt to break through to Črna
has failed.
We are still looking for a way to get to Koroška by land.
We will find one. We have to, otherwise we will make one.
Of course, air transport works.
We still have six helicopters available to us,
three each from the army and the police.
Urgent transport is being carried out that way.
Despite some saying otherwise, mobile phones in the area do work.
This may have nothing to do with us,
but it means a lot to those affected.
Communication works.
We also reinforced our office in Koroška
with people from other regions,
so we have a special officer in Koroška for the Črna area
with whom we are in constant contact
so we can act the moment we open up a land route.
We did get some people there yesterday,
we moved a number of soldiers and some equipment there,
but we all know that this is too little for that area.
In the Upper Savinja Valley, we are assured and we hope
that the road to Luče will be cleared today
and we will have a route to the upper part of the Savinja Valley.
Plumbing in Mozirje, Nazarje and Rečica ob Savinji
is also being fixed. I am certain they will succeed.
We are still sending generators and everything else where it is needed.
Mostly still by air, but it is getting there.
Now, to touch on the subject that Neža talked about,
the levees on the Mura. Late last night, at 11 p.m.,
we tried to help with the army's helicopters.
They even provided two cooks, but we were unable to send them in.
We waited until the morning
and one of the helicopters came to help,
while the other got another assignment.
We did have a few problems
because the concrete blocks that they had there were too heavy.
But they quickly found lighter concrete blocks
and the helicopter was able to put them in place
and fill up the spaces with additional sandbags.
The leak was therefore at least temporarily fixed.
We also preventively evacuated three villages in the area,
Dolnja Bistrica, Hotiza and Kot.
In three villages downriver we made preparations for an evacuation,
meaning people were at home, but on stand-by,
in Gaberje, Benica and Petanjci.
I mean the evacuation of the parts between the road and the Mura,
not the entire villages.
We did one more thing after our meeting at 10 a.m.,
we prepared an outline for a request for international aid.
This went to the office of the Prime Minister.
We proposed two options. We asked for helicopters,
and we will ask for infantry in inter-army communication.
We will also ask for machinery and prefabricated bridges.
This will go through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
If the response does not meet expectations
we will go through bilateral agreements.
I am sure we will receive this equipment shortly.
Of course, we also asked for engineers along with the equipment
because we do not know how to operate this machinery.
Thank you.
For everyone who wishes to offer physical help,
do not go into the field,
the conditions are not good enough to help people in the field yet.
It is sunny in Ljubljana, but we are expecting another storm.
Conditions are not good enough to go help immediately as volunteers.
Let's move on to the questions.
Mr. Šestan, regarding the workers that Petra just mentioned,
what sort of physical labour will you require?
You can see yourselves that the scale of this event is very big.
I am certain we will require many people
who will be able to help perform simple jobs.
We do not expect any specialists,
we will find specialists ourselves.
Some specialists may even volunteer this way.
I cannot say that we will use everyone who offers help,
but this app and database will allow us
to perhaps call someone in 10 days and ask if they can come help.
We will know more tomorrow.
I think it will help us enormously. -Will transportation be organised?
People will also specify in the app whether they need transportation.
We hope that everyone who would like to help
will be self-sufficient for at least that one day.
If we, for instance, send 300 people to Črna,
we cannot ask that they cook lunch for those 300 people in Črna.
There will also be a special press conference tomorrow
with Sandi Curk, who will explain how to use the app. -Yes.
Today we are only announcing it.
Some say that certain emails do not work. We also have a lot of work
and we are asking for your understanding.
We will present the app tomorrow, when it launches.
Thank you. One more question,
The mayor of Dravograd wrote a public letter
asking employers to allow their workers to restore their homes.
What does this mean?
You will have to ask him. I do not know what you or he meant.
It means that they will not go to work until restorations are done.
Don't ask me this, please.
Any other questions,
seeing as only Marta Razboršek from RTV is here with us?
No? Thank you all. We will keep you updated.
Thank you for understanding, have a nice day.