Zamość is struggling with the effects of a storm that passed over the city. Streets, basements and garages were flooded. Kindergartens and restaurants were also affected. The city’s mayor, Rafał Zwolak, informed that a crisis team has met to assess the losses.
Lublin firefighters have received about 200 reports of heavy rain in the region so far. Almost 140 of them concern Zamość and Zamość County.
Most interventions involve pumping water from flooded properties, streets, basements, and underground garages, explained Junior Brigadier Marcin Żulewski from the Municipal Headquarters of the State Fire Service in Zamość. These buildings also include public utility buildings, including two kindergartens, a school, and a dormitory. Additionally, restaurants and a furniture factory have also been damaged, he added.
The mayor of Zamość, Rafał Zwolak, commented on the situation in the city on social media. “The entire city of Zamość was once again flooded in one hour. Even new road investments are not able to cope with the drainage of such a large amount of water,” he wrote on Wednesday evening.
“The crisis team that has been assembled is driving around, responding to floods and assessing the losses. Basements and garages are flooded. Unfortunately, weather maps show that the rainfall is not ending. I am worried about our kindergartens and schools that suffered at the end of June,” admitted the president of Zamość.
Zwolak also posted a video from one of the schools in Zamość. It shows that water has entered the building.
“First we concrete everything we can, and then I hear hundreds of questions: why can’t the manholes drain the water? Because the water has nowhere to soak because there’s concrete everywhere. And again we have to cover the losses from our own budget,” Zwolak said in another post.
The downpour did not spare the Zamość Zoo, which posted photos of the enclosures next to the pond on social media.
We were forced to relocate animals whose housing was flooded. This mainly concerns the housing for black-and-white lemurs and the wintering grounds of birds. This situation has already happened twice – Grzegorz Garbuz, director of the Zamość Zoo, told PAP.
Until 2 a.m. Wednesday to Thursday, an IMGW storm warning is in effect for most of the Lublin province. The third, highest level alert applies to the central and southern parts of the region.
“There are storms with heavy rainfall of 5-15 mm/10 minutes over the Lublin province, possible wind gusts of up to 90 km/h, local hail. The maximum cumulative rainfall occurred in Zamość and amounts to 134 mm,” the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management reported on social media in the evening.
Storms in Podkarpacie. Broken trees, damaged cars
