5/20/2014
St. Louis Bosnian community joins relief effort : News
FLOOD RELIEF St. Louis Bosnian community joins relief effort 5 HOURS AGO • BY MARGARET GILLERMAN
[email protected] 314-340-8126 AND BAILEY OTTO OF THE POST-DISPATCH
When Naida Bukvic, 23, of St. Louis, heard that Bosnia-Herzegovina and much of southeastern Europe was suffering from the worst flooding in over a century, her thoughts turned frantically to her family back in her home country. She and her parents and sister knew that the catastrophe was leaving many thousands of people homeless and desperate throughout the Balkans. At least 35 people have died in five days of flooding caused by unprecedented torrential rain. Entire towns and villages are underwater, thousands of hills have crumpled into landslides and tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes. The death toll is expected to rise further as floodwaters recede after the worst rainfall in 120 years of records. Starting Sunday, Bukvic joined a massive volunteer effort based at the Bosnian Chamber of Commerce in south St. Louis to send relief. The flooding erases the boundaries of the war, religion and ethnicity, wreaking havoc on people in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. The donations are headed to Bosnia, and will be distributed to people of all religions and all ethnicities, local organizers said. “It’s the least we can do,” Bukvic said. “We sort clothes, shampoo, brushes, everyday stuff, package it up and ship it out.” She said that her grandparents, uncle and entire extended family were “all flooded out” in their small village of Janja. “It’s a flat farming area,” she said. “The chickens drowned. The crops are gone. The water was up as high as their stomachs.” Dzenana Kurbegovic of south St. Louis County is one of the organizers of the local relief effort. “This is just the beginning of a long journey to recovery,” she said. “My first cousin’s house is completely flooded,” she said. “They lost everything.” http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/st-louis-bosnian-community-joins-relief-effort/article_a7d6a93e-91c3-5c76-baa2-b3a615a8fa37.html?print=true&cid=p… 1/3
5/20/2014
St. Louis Bosnian community joins relief effort : News
Her cousin and his Bosnian Muslim family live in Sanski Most in western Bosnia, where they moved after their town was destroyed in the war of the 1990s. St. Louis Bosnian community organizers and volunteers said the magnitude of the tragedy was difficult to comprehend for most people here. The country is only about 20 years old and had to rise from the ashes. “This is a quick fix, but it will not stop the bleeding in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” said Anela Barbanell, 34, a bank official who is president of the United Bosnian Association, St. Louis, and the chamber’s treasurer. “This will get them clothing, medicine and food, but then what? Where will they go? It’s not like State Farm will come and then everything will be fine. It’s (Hurricane) Katrina for the whole country of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the government is not organized to help.” Her own relatives back in Sanski Most were stranded in their homes, with floodwaters rising around them. Many others, she said, tens of thousands of people in the region, lost their homes and do not have money to rebuild. The Bosnian Chamber of Commerce and the United Bosnian Association, St. Louis, met last Friday with local Bosnian organizations and Islamic centers to discuss a plan of action. Collection sites were set up immediately, and word was spread on social media. Erna Grbic, co-vice president of the association, said that by Sunday evening, 40-foot-long containers filled with nonemergency items were ready to be shipped out. They are expected to take about six weeks to arrive. But she said emergency items were flown to Bosnia on Monday. A local trucking company, Alpha Transport, had volunteered drivers to take emergency items to Chicago, where a Bosnian television station, RTV BosTel, chartered planes. Grbic estimates that the Bosnian population in St. Louis is about 70,000, the largest number outside of Bosnia. She said hundreds of volunteers came through in the past two days, sorting and loading items into trucks. “It’s amazing what they can do in 48 hours,” she said, smiling. The main collection sites are the Bosnian Chamber of Commerce, the Sabah Bosnian American Newspaper and Grbic Restaurant. “The community, we’re always here for each other, no matter what happens, whether that’s in Bosnia, the United States, St. Louis,” Grbic said. The Bosnian Chamber of Commerce, 5039 Gravois Avenue near Bevo Mill, will be collecting donations from 5 to 8 p.m. every day this week and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Specific items requested include tools, shovels, gloves and rubber boots to help the cleanup. Grbic said over-the-counter medicines, hand sanitizers and baby supplies also are essential, along with canned goods and gently used clothing. Other possible donations include firstaid kits, radios, batteries and flashlights. Packages should be limited in size to 18-by-18-byhttp://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/st-louis-bosnian-community-joins-relief-effort/article_a7d6a93e-91c3-5c76-baa2-b3a615a8fa37.html?print=true&cid=p… 2/3
5/20/2014
St. Louis Bosnian community joins relief effort : News
24 inches (60 to 70 pounds). Right now, Grbic said the plan is to collect as long as needed. Meanwhile, Serbian authorities ordered the urgent evacuation of 12 villages and towns along the raging Sava River on Monday, including one where soldiers, police and volunteers have been working around the clock to protect Serbia’s main power plant. The coal-fired Nikola Tesla power plant, which supplies electricity for half of Serbia and most of Belgrade, lies in the flood-hit town of Obrenovac, 16 miles upstream of the capital. Emergency crews have so far defended the power plant by building high walls of sandbags, but it’s not clear those will withstand the force of an upcoming river surge. Serbian police chief Nebojsa Stefanovic ordered the town completely evacuated of civilians, along with 11 villages along the Sava. In Bosnia, Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija called the flood damage “immense” and compared it to the carnage during the country’s 1992-95 war that killed at least 100,000 people and left millions homeless. He said the flooding had destroyed about 100,000 houses and 230 schools and hospitals and left a million people without drinking water. “The only difference from the war is that less people have died,” he said. “The country is devastated ... this is something that no war in the history of this country” ever accomplished. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/st-louis-bosnian-community-joins-relief-effort/article_a7d6a93e-91c3-5c76-baa2-b3a615a8fa37.html?print=true&cid=p… 3/3
