Eastern Europe floods kill 42 people: UN

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

GENEVA (AFP) — Floods have killed 42 people in central and eastern Europe since last month and forced around 40,000 others to flee their homes, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Heavy rains and storms have led to some of the worst floods in 40 years in parts of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania since July 22, causing great damage to homes, infrastructure and farmland, said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In Ukraine, 34 people have been killed in the west of the country along the Dnestr and Prut rivers while over 25,000 others have been evacuated.

A total of 24,000 hectares of farmland is still flooded, and a significant part of the potato, root crops and vegetable harvest in local farms has been...