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In Szentendre, life and the Danube also flow in a strange riverbed. In the city center, you can meet restaurants full of tourist groups, locals walking their dogs and talking peacefully, while on the banks of the Danube, security personnel in distinctive vests make sure that no one enters the area closed due to flooding.
Next to them, the employees of the Szentendre City Service, water experts and volunteers are already standing in ankle-deep water, packing sandbags in the section where the mobile dam built in previous days no longer protects the city.
There are two main areas of flood protection in Szentendre: the Postás beach and its surroundings, and the area of Ady Endre út north of the Danube embankment. The flood reaches the former earlier, a significant part of the area was already under water yesterday. One water expert said that Postás beach had “fallen”, so we visited there for the first time.
Volunteers are working in ankle-deep water
Several children were playing on the playground in the area, even though the ground was covered with ankle-deep water meters from the slide. The volunteers set up one of their stations here, where they filled sandbags, which they used to place around the local buffet, as well as erecting a dam to prevent the Danube from occupying additional areas. Among the volunteers, we also met the mayor of Szentendre, Zsolt Fülöp, who was carrying sandbags across the already flooded part of the Postás beach.
We praise the day with a receipt, but we are doing well with the preparations, we have enough volunteers, we have enough sandbags and we have enough sand
– said Zsolt Fülöp, who revealed that 50 soldiers are currently arriving in the city to help prepare the defense.
The mayor explained that Szentendre is in a fortunate position in that they can protect themselves with sandbags in a relatively short section, since many water developments have taken place since the 2013 flood. The largest section where sandbags are needed is a 300-meter section at Ady Endre út, but even there they only have to load the bags up to a height of 40 centimeters.
“We cannot protect the floodplain”
added the mayor.
Some have already moved out of their homes and will be living in their cars for the next few days
On Ady Endre út, the employees of the Szentendre City Service carried the sandbags into piles, but the volunteers have not yet started building the dam, because the Postás beach has priority in terms of protection. For the time being, 3,000 sandbags are being prepared for the section, but if that turns out to be not enough, the City Service Provider still has a reserve.
The employees of the Japanese Garden located next to Ady Endre út have been working continuously, because even though they will be behind the dam, groundwater will be a serious problem, so they will surround the deepest points and lakes of the garden with sandbags, and they will also prepare a pump in case the improvised dam is not enough.
Those who live behind the soon-to-be-completed sandbag wall watched the events calmly, unlike those who live in and around Sziget Street, which is already considered a flood plain. The local government provides 100 sandbags per property to the locals, many use these and self-made sandbags to build walls between their properties, but the elderly prefer to unpack their valuables from their homes.
I’ll be sleeping there from tomorrow
– pointed out a local man who, with the help of friends, packed his furniture and valuables onto trailers, pointing to his car in front of his garden, noting that he was preparing to live in his car for almost a week. He agreed with the mayor that the buildings on the floodplain cannot be protected, but he understands that the residents of the newly built properties are trying.
Everyone should decide what they can or want to invest in time, money, and energy to protect their home.
“The municipality provides all the support, but only those who live very close to Route 11 have a realistic chance of protecting their property. Few people know, because the area has already been built up to a significant extent, but road 11 is essentially a dam, and the part below it, lying on the coast, is a floodplain, so unfortunately there is a different way to protect yourself,” the mayor explained to us, noting that residents were told in advance how quickly the electricity grid would be turned off in the area.
The height of the water level is not the biggest problem
The protection does not last until the big price wave comes
– noted Zsolt Fülöp, who thinks that it really doesn’t matter how long the withdrawal period lasts.
“Now it looks like unfortunately we have to defend for a week. This can cause problems if the bags get wet or if the dam starts to leak. So, despite the fact that Szentendré will peak on Saturday-Sunday, we are not defending ourselves until then, but for many days afterwards, until the river returns to its bed,” added the mayor.
Zsolt Fülöp was confirmed by one of the employees of the Szentendre City Service Provider, who says that the main problem is not the height of the water level, as it is expected to be lower than the 2013 peak, but rather the fact that the flood lasts longer, which puts a serious strain on the protection structures. The situation is made worse by the fact that, despite the fact that they have many volunteers, they are much more difficult to mobilize in the event of a dam break than the professionals, so they will probably be under a lot of pressure even in the next week. Despite this, he and some volunteers think that there is too much panic about the flood, which is why some people put sandbags around their homes even behind the mobile dam.
We also solved the 2013 flood, now we are better prepared, so we will solve this too
said one local resident who volunteered.
We also report on the flood situation on Index in our continuously updated, minute-by-minute coverage, which you can follow here.Our weather forecast is a can monitor.
(Cover photo: Szentendre on September 16, 2024. Photo: Péter Papajcsik / Index)
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