20.11.2014.

International Seminar "Battling the May floods in the Balkans in 2014"

At the Hall of the Military Technical Institute, the International Scientific Technical Seminar was held today on the subject of “Battling the May floods in the Balkans in 2014 – Analysis of gained experience and lesson learned”. The seminar was organized by the Ministry of Defence, Russian-Serbian Humanitarian Center (RSHC) from Nis and the Faculty of Security of the University of Defence in Belgrade. Papers were presented by representatives of Serbia, Russia, Montenegro, Slovakia and the Netherlands.

Participants were greeted by MoD and SAF Spokesperson Major Jovan Krivokapic, and the opening speech was given by Predrag Maric, Head of the Emergency Sector at the Ministry of Interior of Serbia.

Maric reminded that 40 local self-governments had been hit by floods in May – 9 cities and 31 municipalities – 1.6 million people. 60 of them lost their lives. 485 facilities were completely damaged by the floods and landslides, and 16,200 houses were damaged. Total material damage is 1.5 billion euros.

Maric then spoke about those who helped reduce the damages from the flood within and outside the country and stressed that members of the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces of Serbia particularly stood out in rescue missions and helping the citizens.

Co-director of the Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Center Viktor Viktorovich Safyanov spoke about this center’s response during the floods in the Balkans, after which representatives of Russia, Slovakia, Montenegro and the Netherlands spoke about their experience from floods in their countries.

Colonel Zvonimir Pesic, Head of the department for Civilian-military Cooperation of the Armed Forces of Serbia presented data on deployment of SAF members. He said that, during the floods in May, on average, 921 SAF members were deployed daily. How great daily efforts were is seen from the following data – during ten days, 10,299 persons were evacuated. The evacuation demanded deployment of 10 helicopters, three amphibian vehicles, 41 boats, 46 motorized vehicles. The ten helicopters performed 539 flights. 3,301 persons were evacuated and 845 transported. 63,365 kilos of load and 51,855 liters of water were transported to places unreachable by road. These are just some of the data.

Major Jovan Krivokapic then analyzed the role of media and crisis communication during the floods in May. He spoke about the significance of the press center, deployment of mobile teams who daily took 5-8 teams of reporters and stressed that they managed responding to all media demands. Aside from that, with timely acquisition and processing of information, MoD and SAF websites and social network profiles were set as credible sources of information, which the media used and quoted.

Assistant Minister of Interior Slobodan Nedeljkovic presented the integrated alarm system 112 which is in the test phase and which represents great potential for improvement of communication in crisis situations.

Professor at the Faculty of Security Vladimir Jakovljevic spoke about the role of civilian protection in the floods in the Balkans, and Prof. Momcilo Milinovic, PhD, from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering spoke about the concept of formation of modular military units in extreme emergency situations.