Floods in Eastern Transylvania

At the end of May, heavy rainfall in Romania’s Covasna and Harghita counties caused streams and rivers throughout to flood, causing enormous damage. While in Praid the Korond stream flooded the salt mine, endangering the livelihoods of families in surrounding communities, in Covasna County the floods forced hundreds of residents out of their homes in several settlements. Thanks to the successful fundraising campaign, Hungarian Interchurch Aid was able to respond quickly to both crisis situations and launched aid programmes to support those affected.

In Borosneu Mare (Nagyborosnyó, Covasna County), the flood rendered at least 150 households partially uninhabitable: in the first few days, several families were forced to spend the night on the streets. As emergency aid, HIA provided them with ready-to-eat food, which was followed by a distribution of cleaning supplies and disinfectants. In parallel, the assessment of damages was conducted by our experts: they visited each affected household, creating a list of construction materials necessary to make these homes livable again based on the level of damage and need. On July 1st, as the summer heat had already significantly dried the homes, we began distributing essential building materials to the 150 flood-affected families in the village.

In contrast to Borosneu Mare, in Praid the focus is on long-term assistance, as the closure of the salt mine is expected to have lasting effects. For now, we are supporting the affected families (mine workers and those evacuated due to mine collapse) with a solidarity  transfer of 500,000 forints.  In addition, following an offer by HIA, 15 children from mining families will attend a summer camp at the organization’s “Camp of Opportunities” in Kastélyosdombó at the end of July.

We call on donors who wish to join to donate by clicking on the ‘I will help’ button button and express their solidarity with the victims of the disaster by making a donation by credit card or by bank transfer to the account numbers:

IBAN Nr. (EUR):
HU 13-11763842-00658885-00000000
IBAN Nr. (USD):
HU 39-11763842-00739012-00000000
SWIFT code: OTPV HU HB

Please put “Transylvania” in the statement.