22.09.2014.

Defence Minister visited the flooded villages

Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic visited the flooded villages in Eastern Serbia, in which members of the Serbian Armed Forces have been removing consequences of torrent deposits for several days. Minister Gasic was accompanied by Minister of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Issues Aleksandar Vulin and Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Jovica Draganic.

In the village of Boljetin, where he was welcomed by Deputy Commander of the Army and Chief of Emergency Staff for flood relief Major General Milosav Simovic, Minister Gasic spoke with officers and soldiers who have been working on clearing the house yards and removal of debris.

- About 500 members of the Serbian Armed Forces with twenty engineering machines were employed in the flooded villages. At the beginning they were clearing flooded houses, and then, as these were mostly villages with a majority of elderly population, they engaged in the removal of large quantities of debris, Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic said adding that they removed more than 260 tons of debris and took away more than 400 cubic meters of earth.

- In the village of Boljetin, soldiers and officers of the Third and Fourth Army Brigade and units of the Training Command, and Command for Development of the Timok Brigade, command battalion and training centres for the Army, and AF&AD were employed. In the village Milutinovac, army is going to set up a bridge of "Bailey" type and we also work in the village of Tekija in Kladovo Municipality, Minister Gasic said.

Villagers of Boljetin and Tekija were given one thousand five hundred litres of bottled water and 300 litres of fruit juices.

Captain Srecko Videnovic was among the first on 15th September to come to rescue the most vulnerable residents.

- In the primary school Vuk Karadzic torrent of water captured a male teacher, a female teacher and two children. The water level was increasing when I arrived in Boljetin with my task group, engaged in a nearby village Kazanski potok. Many children had already been pulled out of the flooded school building, when I took a cargo vehicle, because it was not possible to do it otherwise due to high water, to come to the school. It was difficult for me to pull the frightened children and their teachers out, but, I did not hesitate a moment, Captain Videnovic said.