The Downpours in Bourgas Caused the Death of 3 People, One Unaccounted for

The first signals for the floods in the Bulgarina coastal city of Bourgas resulting from thwe downpours were submitted about 2:00 am on 25^th of October. At 4 o'clock, state of emergency was declared. The heavy rain triggered 6 landslides on Trakia motorway, in the Karnobat - Aitos section, and road maintenance companies are clearing the mud and stones. Teams of the Fire Fighting Service and Civil Protection are helping to pump out water from the flooded houses and regulate traffic on the affected road sections.

Three people have died in the downpours and one person is still unaccounted for.

Five villages are without electricity - Polski Izvor, Cherni vrah, Trastikovo, Rezovo and Sinemorets.

Cherni Vrah is one of the most affected villages from the torrential rain. From the surrounding hills, the water went down to the lower part of the village, destroyed pavements, damaged road surfaces and sept away cars. The water has flooded yards and houses, domestic animals drowned.

The road to the village of Polski Izvor was also damaged. The torrential rain flooded yards and destroyed fences and buildings.

The fast-moving water flooded the road from Dolno Ezerovo to Bratovo and Ravnets. The road was closed to traffic. In Dolno Ezerovo, the flash flooding went through the centre of the village.

According to local people, the dam failure of the 7 small cascade water reservoirs in the region was the cause of the flooding.

Miloush Kumchev, Head of Regional unit of the directorate for supervision of dam walls and the facilities to them in Southeastern Bulgaria explained that all dams have a volume of less than 50,000 cubic meters, which means they can not create a big surge and have never been included in the so-called "potentially dangerous" dams.

The district governor made a survey of the affected villages and said that the heavy rain fell in a very short time and thus lead to critical situations.