Miroslav Klempár: The flood in Ostrava-Přívoz has left behind the stench of mud, destroyed buildings and furniture
After the recent flooding of the Ostrava-Přívoz Municipal Department, the water has receded and revealed extensive damage. The most-affected area is around Na Náhonu Street, where the water has destroyed all of the flooring and furniture in the ground-floor apartments. On Palackého Street, all of the buildings have been flooded with mud and the water rose in some places into the apartments, damaging the flooring and furniture there as well.
The stench of mold and mud is omnipresent, and unless the debris and mud that have washed up are cleared away soon, the situation will worsen. The electricity has yet to be restored even though people are starting to return to their homes. Local residents are now clearing out their destroyed apartments and getting rid of their destroyed furniture, which frequently ends up carted away by the waste removal vehicles.
Most of those afflicted in this locality are impoverished families, single mothers, and pensioners who currently need our aid. There is a need for cleanup work, cleaning supplies, shovels, buckets, rags, facemasks, groceries, bottled water, baby formula, diapers, blankets, sheets and clothing.
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“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, where to turn. They brought me a bucket and some Savo [bleach] from the local authority, but I’ve lost everything – furniture, clothing, personal stuff, just everything. We escaped in the middle of the night with only a purse with our documents in it. I don’t know what’s going to happen,” an older Romani woman told news server Romea.cz.
Some residents, especially Romani people, are experiencing problems with getting aid from local authorities. In the area of Na Náhonu Street, several Romani residents described problems with getting assistance from the local authority. They claim the authorities do not want to communicate with them and several Romani people alleged that they could not even access the forms to apply for help. Other Romani residents and non-Romani residents say they are not having problems applying for aid. The problem mainly applies to Palackého Street, where the water did not make it into the ground floor level of some apartments but did destroy the floors and furniture in others.
Local residents have already contacted the organizations which are providing aid right now. Some organizations have already begun assisting people, but they are unable to cover everybody’s needs. For that reason, it is important that neighbors help each other personally. In addition to material aid, there is a need to support people during their negotiations with the authorities so this assistance is fairly distributed among all who have been affected irrespective of their ethnicity.
