A street collapsed in Slanic Prahova, home evacuations considered

Landslides aggravated by climate change all over the world.

By Romania Journal Last updated Apr 25, 2024

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A street in Slănic Prahova collapsed on Thursday morning. The asphalt, but also the pavers on the sidewalk have gone downhill. Traffic was stopped, and the authorities ordered the emergency evacuation of residents in the area. The collapsed street is 23 August Street in Slănic Prahova.

The locals are terrified and fear that the surprise will reach the blocks. The distance from the buildings, says the city councilor, is approximately 40-60 meters, and the cracks continue to expand.

“We can’t figure out the affected surface, we don’t know what’s underneath. From what we can see, it was about a cavern. Traffic was stopped on 23 August Street, we’re waiting for the intervention of the competent authorities. The overflow continues, it expands, we appear cracks,” the mayor of Slănic, Costea Daneluș, told a local paper.

The Prefect of Prahova County, Emil Dragănescu, said on Digi24 that the Local Committee for Emergency Situations had been convened and that “if the situation requires it, people in the area will be evacuated”.

Most likely, the phenomenon occurred because of the salt deposits in the area.

However, Salrom’s director of production, Irina Muller, claimed to Digi24 that “landslide has nothing to do with salt exploitation”, because the area is far from exploitation points.

Some landslides appeared in another area of the city last year, as well, which affected several houses, according to prahovainfo.ro.

Landslides aggravated by climate change all over the world

A busy street in Buriticupu, a city in northeastern Brazil, has now reached a wide chasm with a depth of 80 meters – a 20-story building would fit in it. Canyons formed by soil erosion are advancing at an alarming rate, destroying thousands of homes in Latin America and Africa and threatening fertile farmland in parts of China, the US and Europe, according to the BBC.

The locals of Buriticupu call these canyons “voçoroca” or “torn earth”, in the language of the native Tupi-Guarani. The phenomenon is a result of deep gully erosion, one of the most aggressive forms of soil degradation caused by rain and waste water.

The experience of a former police officer in Buriticupu, whose car fell into the chasm in the middle of the town while returning from a party at night, is just one of many examples that demonstrate the risks to which the town’s 70,000 residents are exposed.

As more ravines form in this city on the edge of the Amazon jungle, Buriticupu could end up being torn in two. The city has around 30 such craters, and the first two largest are less than 1 kilometer apart.

Ravines have been part of Earth’s geological history for millions of years, but Edilea Dutra Pereira, a geologist and professor at the Federal University of Maranhão, says that today’s are expanding faster and they fear more will appear because climate change that can make the rains more intense.

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