Floods have devastated two-thirds of Slovenia. Many villages are cut off from the outside world. The Balkan country is struggling with the worst natural disaster in its history.
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00:00 Homes swallowed up by rivers, crossings crushed by water.
00:08 Slovenian carpenter Benedikt Patočnik doesn't know when or how he'll ever work again,
00:13 after flash floods hit two-thirds of his country.
00:16 "The water broke down this door and flooded the entire workshop.
00:26 All of my carpentry machinery was inside and all of it's destroyed now.
00:32 We spent 30 years of our lives building this.
00:37 In two hours it was all gone."
00:47 Days on, dirt, debris and sludge coat the cut-off town of Černonakoroškem.
00:54 It takes us inside his family home.
00:57 There's no running water, no power.
01:01 "The floodwater came all the way up to here.
01:06 It was everywhere.
01:09 Now we have the firefighters.
01:11 They're doing a really amazing job."
01:15 Others are also pitching in.
01:17 Neighbours drain mud by the bucketload.
01:21 While soldiers dig homes out of the rubble.
01:24 "It's horrifying how powerful nature can be.
01:29 We're happy we can do our duty.
01:31 That's all that matters.
01:32 And all we can do."
01:36 The force of nature is on full display here.
01:40 But far from the flood zone frontlines, the force of Slovenian solidarity is on show too.
01:46 An hour away in Velenje, the Red Cross has been inundated with donations.
01:51 "Working gloves and cleaning gloves we managed to gather quite a lot.
01:56 And as well for tools, we got a lot of brooms and shovels.
02:02 Even though they are bought out at the stores, people drove from all over Slovenia to drop
02:08 them off here."
02:09 And they keep coming, bearing food, bottled water, towels and other essentials.
02:16 "Almost everybody's got somebody affected, either friends or family.
02:22 So yeah, we're a small country, so every bit helps.
02:27 And I think we're going to get through this."
02:30 Further south in Ljubljana, hydraulic engineers are thinking about the bigger picture.
02:37 Their models accurately predicted where flooding would occur, but not the intensity.
02:42 Now climate change is shifting expectations.
02:45 "We cannot go ahead thinking it will not happen again.
02:52 It will happen again, again from a probabilistic point of view, and we have to be ready for
02:58 it."
02:59 That means building more flood defences like this one in Ljubljana.
03:03 It was constructed after a deluge in 2010 and helped keep catastrophe out of the neighbourhood
03:09 this time round.
03:11 Dimitri Mojbanovic is confident more infrastructure will be put in place.
03:15 The disaster has focused minds.
03:18 But he says some communities may have to relocate from the riskiest regions for good.
03:23 "This is one of the really difficult components, moving away.
03:31 It's underestimated how much pain can that induce in the people which have to move away.
03:40 They will have to move away."
03:43 Back in Čirna, residents are still reeling.
03:47 Slovenia's president has come to offer them messages of support.
03:50 "The Slovenian government is now doing everything it can with the help of NATO and the European
03:56 Union.
03:57 I can assure you that no one is going to be left behind, no one is going to stay without
04:02 a place to live and sleep, but it will take on the data that I have currently not months
04:09 to rebuild but years to rebuild."
04:11 Benedikt says he can't bear to think about the future, one where floods may become more
04:16 frequent.
04:18 "We'll manage somehow."
04:27 For now, he'll keep on cleaning up, seeking some hope among the mountains of mud.
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