Thousands Flee Homes

Flood// in Maglaj, Bosnia, tens of thousands fled their homes to escape the worst flooding in a century. Rapidly rising rivers surged into homes, sometimes reaching up to the second floors, sending people climbing to rooftops for rescue. Hundreds were also evacuated in Croatia. After the floods, Bosnia and Serbia struggled to recover, after three months of rain fell in just three days in the Balkan countries. At least 40 people have died in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. Half a million people have fled their homes, and tens of thousands are without drinking water. Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija compared the physical destruction to the country's 1992-'95 civil war. Hundreds of landslides have swept away homes. Rescue workers from the European Union, Russia and Turkey have been helping stranded people and delivering food, blankets, generators and clean water to those in shelters. There have also been reports of thousands of dead animals—cows, sheep, pigs and dogs—washing up as floodwaters have receded. But the Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine Action Center has been working around the clock on another emergency: dislodged land mines. About 2 million land mines were planted during Bosnia's civil war. The mine action center helped remove most of them. Only 120,000 remained in a 460-square-mile area, marked by some 25,000 signs that the centre spent 10 years marking.