STA, 9 December 2020 - Persistent heavy rains and a high tide have flooded parts of the coast, causing landslides and blocking roads, including part of the main road leading to the Dragonja border crossing with Croatia.
While the rain continues, the situation at the moment is the most critical in the valley of the border river Dragonja, the head of the local civil rescue team Robert Zirnstein has told the STA.
Firefighters and civil rescue members were up all night monitoring the situation in the area between Sečovlje and Strunjan, which was already flooded in heavy rain on Sunday.
? Ravnokar je bila v Piranu aktivirana sirena javnega alarmiranja z opozorilom na nevarnost zaradi visokega plimovanja...
Posted by Občina Piran - Comune di Pirano on Tuesday, 8 December 2020
The traffic information centre reports that alternate one-way traffic is only possible on the main road between Koper and the Dragonja crossing due to flooding.
Firefighters have been busy pumping water from buildings and placing sand bags to secure what can be secured against flooding.
The sea flooded Piran in the morning, but Zirnstein said this was the least of their problems at the moment, as more substantial damage had been prevented by precautionary measures.
A landslide about 40 cubic metres in size slid down the road between apartment buildings in the Markovec borough of Koper, along with trees.
Landslides and water are also blocking several other local roads, and road and public utility maintenance workers have been busy repairing road lighting, pulling out cars from water and flooded vessels.
Meanwhile, heavy precipitation and wet snow have led to power cuts in the northern Primorska region in the west of the country as trees and power poles and lines buckled under heavy load.
Power distributor Elektro Primorska said a total of 2,200 its clients were without power as of 8am this morning, including in remoter parts of Bovec, Tolmin, Idrija, Ajdovščina and Kanal.
Part of the coastal town of Izola has also been affected by blackouts.
Elektro Primorska said all its available teams of electricians are on the ground trying to restore the power to all households, but large amounts of snow are hindering access in some parts.
Vanči Premrl, the head of the road maintenance team with the construction company Kolektor CPG, which is helping to repair the broken power lines, told the STA that up to a metre of snow had fallen in the Bovec area and on the Trnovo-Banjšice Plateau.
Precipitation is forecast to continue until the afternoon.
