The streets are rivers. Most people have left.<br /><br />Obrenovac, some 30 kilometres southwest of the Serbian capital Belgrade, has been devastated by flooding that has claimed the lives of at least a dozen of its citizens.<br /><br />Many others have returned to find their homes and belongings in ruins.<br /><br />Perched on the windowsill of what remains of his house, resident Goran Djordjevic said: “All that I had is lost. We have nothing now. The house is broken.”<br /><br />While thousands left the town, some elderly residents chose to stay, taking refuge upstairs in their homes.<br /><br />Rescue workers and volunteers tour the streets, trying to make sure they have enough to eat.<br /><br />Receiving a welcome bread delivery hoisted up to her window, one elderly woman asked for the time, explaining that she had a clock but no batteries.<br /><br />Sandbag barriers have been built in desperate efforts to protect Serbia’s biggest power plant which is situated at Obrenovac. It covers roughly half the country’s electricity needs. <br /><br />While parts have already been shut down as a precaution, it would have to be powered down completely if floodwaters breach the defences.<br /><br />Djina Trisovic, a union spokeswoman at Serbia’s EPS power utility, said some members of staff had worked three days with barely a break because their relief teams could not reach the plant.<br /><br />“We’ve done all we could,” she said. “Now it’s in the hands of God.”
