The level of the River Una at Hrvatska Kostajnica in Sisak-Moslavina County was stagnating on Wednesday and was 497 centimeters in the evening, but problems in that town, located some 90 kilometres southeast of Zagreb, were caused by surface runoff water.

Despite the fact that the level of the river was stagnating, a state of emergency was still in force in Hrvatska Kostajnica, with all competent services on the ground.

In addition to Civil Protection units, employees of local utility services and members of the Croatian Army were on the ground, fighting off flood water in Hrvatska Kostajnica as well as Petrinja, Lekenik, Dvor and Hrvatska Dubica.

The Civil Protection Directorate said the situation in Karlovac County was serious but under control. All competent services were on the ground, building flood barriers and distributing sandbags to endangered areas.

The levels of the Korana and Kupa rivers at Karlovac were rising mildly on Wednesday evening, having flooded about a dozen houses and prompting one evacuation in Duga Resa. Many local roads were closed.

Roads were also closed in Zadar County.

The situation in Gracac municipality was improving but the communities of Grab, Srb and Kokirna are still flooded. Firefighters, members of the HGSS mountain rescue service and the Croatian Red Cross were on the ground, delivering food, medicines and drinking water.

Civil Protection members from Split were in Obrovac, using pumps to remove flood water.

The Zadar County Public Health Institute has issued instructions for the local population about how to clean and disinfect areas and items that have come into contact with polluted water, after which they will be provided with drying gear.

Zoran Djurokovic, director of the Hrvatske Vode state-owned water management company, said on Wednesday that there are 4,100 kilometres of flood embankments in Croatia and that none of the embankments has ruptured.

The problems on the ground were caused by local torrents and there are areas that were not defended against flooding, he said, noting that not much consideration was given to the location of individual buildings during physical planning and construction in previous decades.

“We have been trying to make housing construction comply with flood protection measures but some houses are too close to rivers,” Djurokovic said.