Floods hit southern, southeastern Albania, hundreds evacuated

South and southeast Albania have been hit by major floods, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of families from their houses on Sunday, Albanian daily news reported.

 

Albanian state police urged all citizens who planned to travel to the south, to cancel any movement, as heavy rain caused rivers to overflow their banks and cause huge floods on several areas endangering also national axes.

 

Many areas in southern and southeastern Albania have no power or water at the present.

 

Meanwhile, northern Albania has been covered by snow, which has caused difficulty in the movement of cars. In eastern Albania, dozens of cars were blocked in Qafe Plloce because the height of snow reached over 30 cm.

 

Police forces arrived at both sides of Qafe Plloce and stopped the vehicles not equipped with snow chains or high tonnage vehicles to avoid accidents.

 

The roads directorate said that almost all axes are passable, except for Korca-Darsha segment in eastern area where the use of snow chains is indispensable. In some villages of Kukes and Tropoja in northern Albania the height of snow has reached over 60 cm and dozens of snow-cleaning vehicles are working to clear roads.