The worst flood­ing in 120 years saw the Balka­ns receive three months of rain­fall in three days in May, killing dozens of peo­ple in Ser­bia, Croa­t­ia, and Bosnia-Herze­gov­ina. The emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­vid­ed by radio ama­teurs helped coor­di­nate the res­cue efforts.

Many thou­sands of peo­ple were evac­u­at­ed in Ser­bia and Bosnia-Herze­gov­ina, and many were with­out fresh water and ser­vices. More than 100,000 build­ings were uninhabitable.

The Savez radioa­mat­era Srbi­je (Ser­bian Radio Asso­ci­a­tion SRS) was engaged in dis­as­ter relief com­mu­ni­ca­tions, with its con­trol sta­tion YU0S using VHF and 3760 kHz. 

Zoran Mlade­n­ovi YU1EW, who coor­di­nat­ed the dis­as­ter relief com­mu­ni­ca­tions, report­ed that they had every­thing need­ed to can han­dle the situation.

Nenad Supurovic YU1TTL and his broth­er Ped­ja YT9TP were among the first reg­is­tered and sent to Obren­o­vac in north­ern Sebia to sup­port res­cuers and emer­gency man­agers with communications.

In an inter­view on Aljazeera, Nenad YU1TTL told of the dra­ma and how he became involved in the res­cue efforts.

He explained how radio ama­teurs trans­mit pieces of infor­ma­tion received from cri­sis staff, such as who needs to be evac­u­at­ed from flood­ed hous­es and apart­ments, and how.

That inter­view was post­ed at http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/05/radio-amateurs-assist-serbia-flood-rescues-2014519131826315758.html.

The Cable News Net­work CNN report­ed that Mar­i­jan Milet­ic S56A/N1YU, mon­i­tored the flood sit­u­a­tion and the acti­vat­ed emcomm net­works, and Tilen Ces­t­nik S56CT was sent to assist. There was a lot of mutu­al aid among the for­mer republics of Yugoslavia. 

Two decades ago the area was hit by a war. Now it faces flood dam­age includ­ing 3,000 land­slides, and the loss of telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions and elec­tric­i­ty in many areas. Dead ani­mals and unearthed land­mines pose fur­ther hazards.

SRS mem­ber Dra­gan Anton­ic YU1UO worked in the emer­gency oper­a­tions cen­tre in Bel­grade, esti­mat­ing hams han­dled at least 25,000 pieces of traffic.

Dra­gan YU1UO said the equip­ment and radio ama­teur knowl­edge was used to pass infor­ma­tion to those car­ry­ing out the res­cue work. He said the radio com­mu­ni­ca­tion helped the crews to be more effi­cient in locat­ing and evac­u­at­ing those in danger. 

He explained this to the SBS World News at http://www.sbs.com.au/podcasts/Podcasts/radionews/episode/336946/Radio-enthusiasts-help-Serbia-flood-response

The ham radio vol­un­teers are expect­ed to con­tin­ue assist­ing the dis­as­ter recov­ery effort that could take some time.

- Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.