BUDAPEST, Hungary — Baptist World Aid (BWAid) and Hungarian Baptist Aid’s (HBAid) Rescue24, the rescue-and-recovery arm of BWAid, participated in a rescue effort following a severe ice storm that affected eastern Hungary on June 7.
Local authorities and the national fire service had requested assistance from Rescue24, which consists of staff and volunteers from HBAid. Rescue24 sent 24 people with five vehicles to Nyirbogdany, a village in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary, one of the areas worst affected by the weather conditions.
More than 1,000 houses in Nyirbogdany were damaged by falling ice as big as tennis balls, reported Laszlo Pavelcze, rescue commander of HBAid. Roofs and windows of houses were badly damaged, as were motor vehicles. “We helped to put up plastic sheeting on the roofs, and we also had to demolish a house that was in life-threatening condition,” he said.
The ice storm damaged or destroyed more than 7,000 houses and more than 60 churches, schools, hospitals and clinics in 26 towns and villages within four hours.
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