To my AL community.
Dear AL players,
I know that these forums are not the place for something like this, but I feel obligated to inform you about what has been happening over the past 5-6 days ( depending on your time zone ) in my country and to ask for your help.
I have been playing AL since the 5th of January of 2013. As time went on and as I got familiar to how wonderful this community is, I felt more and more attached to a big number of players here. In all corners of the world. Now, as I write this, my country has been devastated by floods the size of which exceeds all measurements since the time rainfall began to be measured and recorded. I live in Serbia, a country in the south-east Europe. My country and our neighbor countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia have been hit with devastating floods. We have received help from many countries of the world so far: Russia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Belarus, Germany, EU in general, USA, Azerbaijan and many more in the form of rescue teams, water pumps, boats, helicopters and financial donations. To all residents of these countries and the EU: a big thank you. But, this is far from enough.
During these 5 days many people here lost everything they have worked for their entire lives. Cattle, homes, cars, land, farms...all wiped out and destroyed in a matter of minutes. Since the floods began, serbian government opened a fund raising number 1003. Sending an SMS to that number donates 100 RSD ( around 80 euro cents or 1.10 dolars ). Serbian people are helping via this and in rescue shelters all over the country. The situation during those first days has been cataclysmic. Our prime minister asked via the national TV service for 1500 volunteers to defend the town of Šabac. This town is important because Serbia's biggest power plant ( Nikola Tesla ) is located in that town on the banks of the river Sava. If Sava flooded the plant Serbia would have no power and no drinking water for years due to the fact that the chemical storage of a factory called ,,Zorka'' is located there. A breach of those storage areas would lead to the leaking of dangerous chemicals into the river Sava and onto the river Danube and the waterworks, leaving the people of Serbia with no drinking water or technical water for a significant amount of time. 10.000 people volunteered and Šabac was successfully defended.
As the floods began people started moving. Many college students, high school students, men, women and even some children volunteered to help and raise wardrobe, canned food, bottled water, medicines, blankets and other resources needed to help the people driven away from their homes by the surge. Now, we all stand united. Serbs, Croatians, Bosnians, Slovenians, Macedonians, Montenegrins. All of our differences have been set aside and now we are working together as one. But, even tho Šabac and the remaining towns and cities have been flooded and later on defended from additional surges, many cities unfortunately have not been, and the threats still remain.
There is a town in Serbia called Obrenovac. It is located on the coast of the river Sava, south west of the capital Belgrade. The entire population of the town numbers around 71, 72 thousand people. After the initial floods...this is how it looks now.
Words can not describe the feelings going through our minds right now. And the saddest part is that it's not the only town hit in the floods. Krupanj, Ljubovija, Smederevska Palanka and many more have been completely flooded. In Krupanj landslides destroyed every house that was built there and left the residents with only the things they fled their homes with. Smederevska Palanka is now facing a water problem and shortage, since the floods overflowed into the waterworks and thus making any drinking water unavailable. Drinking water is being distributed there via tow trucks and vans. Ljubovija has still not received any form of significant help due to the fact that it's inaccessible.
This is flooded area currently. The scale, size and area covered by it exceeds the total area of a country like Slovenia.
To all that know me and wonder where I have been the past few days: I am on coasts of the rivers building banks to defend my country and spreading appeals over Twitter to help save still stranded people with my countrymen. I don't know when I will be back, and I don't know if it will be anytime soon.
To all the rest: Find it in your heart to donate to the official account of the government of the republic of Serbia, your little can mean a lot to people that have lost everything they've worked their entire life to build.
Foreign currency account with instructions on how to donate are located here http://www.srbija.gov.rs/pages/article.php?id=101093
Official PayPal account that has been opened with the intention to gather flood relief funds is located here http://www.srbija.gov.rs/pages/article.php?id=101113
To all of you that see this, I would like to thank you for the time you found to read this. I myself have not been hit and/or endangered by these floods as I live in a part of Serbia that was not in any major risk. I once again am sending out an appeal, your little can mean a lot. If you can not donate, please spread the appeal around in any way so that these people get the help they deserve.
Respectfully,
Slywannas, long term AL player and officer of Trickster.
#SupportSerbia
#SupportBosnia
#SupportCroatia
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