Heavy floods at the weekend in Romania killed one man, damaged hundreds of homes across the country and disrupted rail and road traffic, the Environment Ministry said on Sunday. A 55-year-old man died on Saturday evening in the southern county of Dambovita after being carried away by a swollen river and another had to be rescued by helicopter, a local council spokesman told state agency Rompres. The ministry said around 600 houses were flooded across the Balkan country after heavy rain on Saturday, which also affected more than 900 hectares of agricultural land, Reuters said. The worst hit area was the southeastern county of Buzau where landslides cut off 200 houses. A bridge was destroyed and traffic was interrupted, with the waters reaching as high as 7 metres (22 ft) in some areas. In the western county of Timis, already hit by the worst floods in 50 years three weeks ago, around 30,000 hectares of land were still covered by water a metre deep. Hungarian authorities sent 20 high power pumps to help drain the water. Around 3,700 people in Timis were forced to abandon their villages and authorities have started a campaign to vaccinate the population, fearing outbreaks of malaria and hepatitis. Meteorologists warned that more rain was expected over the next two days. --SP 1505 Local Time 1205 GMT
