"After the Deluge" is the project that traces the social, family, interpersonal, physical and psychological consequences in a small rural area in Bulgaria severely affected by floods revealing the readiness of local people for natural disasters and the ability to cope with them.
On September 2, 2022, 3 villages in the Karlovo area - Karavelovo, Bogdan and Slatina were swept away by a heavy flood. Although there are no victims, dozens of houses have been destroyed and hundreds of houses have been affected by the flood.
The small rivers in the settlements came with two meters of high waves and dragged thousands of tons of trees, mud and silt, forming a thick layer of silt of more than 1 meter.
Local people blame the unsanitary riverbeds and the uncontrolled logging in the mountains for the disaster.
A couple of people were trapped by the water for 12 or more hours until they were rescued by civil protection and the fire department. The slow and inadequate actions of the state forced affected people to start recovering by themselves and relying on help from relatives and volunteers. The municipality mayor expects the recovery period of the affected villages to be at least a couple of years.
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A view from above at the village of Bogdan four days after the flood The sixth of September is a national holiday in Bulgaria and many volunteers visited the flooded villages to help clear people s homes
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Epiphany ritual in the village of Karavelovo Bulgaria on the 6th of January
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The date of the flood is marked on the facade of a public building in the center of the village of Slatina Part of the public infrastructure blocked the wood dragged by the river thus protecting people s houses
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Radka Dimitrova from Bogdan village standing in her yard Four days after the heavy flooding there is almost no help She and her husband are removing everything flooded from the house and trying to save something if possible
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The laundry of Petar and Radka Dimitrovi who live in a container provided to them by the state The dampness in the house makes life difficult there and they hope it can dry out next summer
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Volunteers help to remove wallpapers in a house in the village of Bogdan In the first week after the flood thousands of volunteers gathered to help clean the houses and yards of the affected families
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Minka Stoyanova 51 and Plamena Kerezova 13 are cleaning the mud from kitchen equipment in the river in front of the house of their relatives in the village of Bogdan The affected houses did not have electricity for one week and no tap water for a couple o
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Preparing an animal sacrifice during the church holiday of Saint Michael the Archangel People use this day to pray for the health and well-being of their family and relatives
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Huge boulders dragged by the river are removed from the river bed so as not to block it in case of new rainfall The stones came from the mountain some kilometers above the village
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Stefka Todorova 45 with her one year old Leonardo who is sleeping in the container where they live Their house is not suitable for living so Stefka her husband and their two boys are living in two separate containers One is a bedroom and the other is a
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Boy playing football in front of his house in the village of Karavelovo Before the flood the field was perfect for play
