I went to work at seven o'clock and when I wanted to come back I couldn't. I look at my father from five meters away - so close, yet so far. We are powerless, he says Radovan Stijepović from the village of Komarnica in Šavnica.
On Friday, the river of the same name washed away two bridges in the village, auxiliary buildings, changed its course, flooded the pond, properties, and Stijepović's parents, as well as forty locals and tourists, were cut off in the upper part of the village, in the hamlet of Kozarica.
Stijepović also submitted a video to "Vijesta".
The "Vijesti" team reached the first bridge that was "cut in half" by the river. The second bridge was almost destroyed, so the village was divided into three parts.
"The elders say that this kind of calamity is unprecedented in our region. All infrastructure was destroyed - from bridges, water supply, electricity. Bridges must be addressed immediately. The upper bridge in Kozarica was broken for 70 meters. The river completely changed its course. About 30-40 locals were captured. There are old people. There are also tourists there because this is the tourist center of Savnik. We deliver water, food. The municipality of Šavnik reacted immediately, but we expect the state to get involved, to solve the infrastructure and to connect people. We expect the help of the Government, the Army", says the younger Stijepović, while his father, on the other side of the bridge, greets him because it is impossible to cross the bridge.
That's why the excavator is there Radojica Ćirović from the Protection and Rescue Service in Šavnica, which is trying to bring the river back to its bed and make the crossing over the first bridge as functional as possible. He is also there to deliver water and food to the locals, who are waiting on the other side, but also to transport the "Vijesti" reporter.
"I have a camp and there are currently four guests - two from Austria and two from Lithuania. They were really scared when they saw Komarnica carrying everything. There were disasters. It was never like this. We have no water and electricity, we are cut off," he says Milan Grujic to whom Ćirović brought water.
"This is terrible. And we had a great time until the flood happened. We left the car we rented in front of the cabin. We need to cross the river. We have to get out of here, because we have a flight tomorrow, and the next flight isn't until two weeks away. We're looking to see if it's at all possible to cross the river somewhere by car", he spreads his arms helplessly Bernard Tomkos from Lithuania.
Milorad Stijepović's guests were also cut off and cannot return.
"I have six adult guests and one baby. The guests are from Israel, Portugal and England. The neighbor has two guests from Germany, and the other has a family of four, also from Germany. It's no wonder that we have guests here from all over, because Kozarica is a pearl in the Balkans. Now the rest of our guests have canceled their arrival," said Stijepović in a telephone conversation, because we were unable to reach him.
As he said, the situation in the hamlet of Kozarice is currently under control, the river has returned to its bed, but it has destroyed everything.
"The river completely changed its course and this second bridge was completely destroyed. It used to happen that the river came, but this amount of water in such a short period - never. I also went to Dragišnica and there the maltene hill collapsed. It was a huge landslide - hundreds of cubic meters of wood must have been carried away, and who knows how much material. It was really surprising when I saw it because it had never happened before, nor did I believe that a landslide of this magnitude could be triggered here", said Milorad Stijepović.
Surrounded by water, they have no drinking water
Zdravko Kasalica, who has a fish pond in Komarnica, in the hamlet of Izvori (not without reason), believes that the landslide in Dragišnica led to the blockage, which is why the river came so fast. And there is also a large amount of precipitation.
"The riverbed was almost dry. I thought that there was nothing to worry about and that the river would not rise that much, even though it was raining. It has never happened that Komarnica came at that speed. Five hours ago, the woman got up and saw that the entire pond was under water. The river overflowed the embankment. My father is 75 years old and does not remember the river rising so much that it overflowed that embankment. We couldn't do anything, without watching the water carry away everything we created for 20 and a half years", says Zdravko, while his family, brothers and children, fill bags with sand to prevent the cloudy Komarnica from entering the pond and save the "crumbs". what they have left.
"The pond must be built along the course of the river. I had provided everything, but probably this landslide contributed to it. The first pool was built in 1996. In the pond there were 150 thousand heads of fry, four tons of consumption and about 100 pieces of the mother flock. Not even five percent remained. The basement was flooded, and there were two tons of food that I had recently raised. There was a little bit left, but it was unusable, while the other bags were washed away by the water. The damage is huge, probably over 50 thousand worth of fish alone. I will restore this to its original state. I don't know when, but I will return, and I will try to make it better than it was. And it will be," Zdravko dares as he clenches his teeth so that they don't see that his jaws are trembling.
And while there are almost no fish in the pond, there are plenty of them in the surrounding ponds that remained after the withdrawal of Komarnica.
"It was not clear to us what was happening. Later we heard that huge amounts of rain fell on Žabljak, over 30 liters in 200 hours, and that was probably it. That water from Durmitor, it's a big raft, the place is called Dobri Do, it collected all the water and headed here. It is likely that the landslide in Dragišnica blocked it, and the water suddenly came here. Many had intended to cut down Dragišnica. One part is cut. The older locals said that it should not be cut down precisely because of this," explains Kasalica.
Vlatko-Vlad Delic the fishpond located on Komarnica was completely destroyed.
"There were about a ton of fish and over a ton of fry. The water is still big and cloudy. The water had reached the house, but did not get inside. There is living water in the mountain. Heavy rains fill that part and water gets here and causes big problems. But like this - never. This village has the best supply of water, and the time has come to have as much water around as you want, but we don't have any to drink. It will be difficult until this stabilizes," says Delić.
And in order to stabilize everything and to repair the destroyed infrastructure, the help of the state is needed, say the locals.
"Two bridges were blown away, the road was destroyed, we have no water and electricity, locals and tourists are 'trapped'." It never happened like this. The Municipality of Šavnik is doing its best to help, but we will see if they will have that much strength. We are waiting for the Government and competent services to react," he said Bozidar Stijepović.
Bonus video:
