Jacquie's Weekly Diary from Siminoc, where Growing Care is creating a Small Holding project to educate some of the street children about cultivation and livestock, helping them out of the poverty cycle

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July 4th 2006
Lew managed to get back on line this evening and immediately got on SKYPE to me (Webmaster) so that we could hear all the latest news about the floods in and around Siminoc, where they are based.
They lost most of the recently born piglets and quite a few of the rabbits, although he did see a couple swimming towards the sunflowers and hopes they have survived. All the garden produce was washed away on their land and all of their neighbours. Fortunately the main crops of sunflowers were sufficiently established to survive. However, everything is now covered in a thick sludge that takes a lot of effort to clear.

Both Lew and Jacquie have been working from dawn to dusk since the deluge, trying to get some resemblance of normality. Lew said at least he can now empathise with the flood victims he was recently trying to help. At least the Growing Care buildings are still in tact and they have not lost their homes like many others. Jacquie shouted over the SKYPE link that she would try to get a diary entry sorted out as soon as she has a moment or two to sit down and gather her thoughts.

They think at least some of the building blocks they talked about in recent diaries, may have survived although they have not been able to get up to that part of the land where they were laying out to dry in the sun. More likely they are now all welded together in one large mound of mud and straw.

These are a few pictures they took immediately after the main deluge, the road outside was literally a river and carried with it most of the topsoil from surrounding fields and gardens.

Diary entry for 2nd July 2006

Due to torrential rain and flash floods in and around Constanta, there are currently no phone lines functioning, so the diary for this week cannot be sent to us. 
The following brief message was sent by text to us today:

Yesterday saw a thunderstorm and with it a lot of rain. In the animal house the water level rose to a foot in an hour, all is ok and we are trying to do a big clear up mission getting rid of all the mud and drying everything out.

Thank god they are OK. Unfortunately, I have just learned that some of their animals were drowned. When the phone lines are repaired we will get the full story and publish it here.

Remember them in your prayers.

Romanian Newspaper, NINE O'CLOCK, carried this information today:

Constanta tuned into a small Venice

From blue skies and 30 degrees C, to torrential rains! The weather changed suddenly at the seaside. A rain that lasted for an hour transformed Constanta city into a small Venice. Two national roads were blocked, on small sections, because of the water that flooded the road. In one neighbourhood, the water even flooded several apartments. Problems were reported in Costinesti too, where the storm pulled to the ground several trees. The most affected area from Constanta County is Saturn, where approx 10 days will be necessary for the refurbishment of the beach, while in other three resorts, Mangalia, Venus and Olimp, the authorities will work three or four days to restore the areas. Over 200 households in Constanta municipality were flooded, and several national roads were blocked for a short period of time. The manoeuvres of the ships in Constanta South - Agigea port were cancelled on Sunday, starting 6.15 AM, because of unfavourable weather conditions.

The nature continues to cause havoc in Romania. The heavy rains that fell on Saturday through Sunday night affected numerous regions of the country.
The images are shocking: houses swept away, broken bridges, blocked roads and trees put to the ground. According to a latest report, nine persons died and three are still missing, yet the number of persons evacuated dropped yesterday to 42, most of them from Suceava, as the waters pulled back. Minister of Environment and Water Management, Sulfina Barbu stated the hydrological warning for the Western areas of the country are maintained. The Minister yesterday added that there is no longer the possibility of exceeding the danger level on lower rivers, but only the warning levels.
According to a balance sheet released by the Ministry of Administration and Interior (MAI), there were affected 67 localities from 12 counties: Bacau, Constanta, Dambovita, Galati, Harghita, Ialomita, Maramures, Mures, Mehedinti, Neamt, Sibiu, Suceava and Valcea.
The storms and rains destroyed 28 houses and damaged other 523 and over 2,725 outbuildings.
Also, 4.4 kilometres of national road, 16.6 km of county roads, 223.3 km of commune roads, 253 footbridges and pedestrian crosswalks, 41 socio-economic objectives were affected, and 37 localities were left without electricity.

Pictures from Romanian TV