Two decades ago, on August 23rd, 2005, villages in the valley of the Nyikó river in Transylvania (Romania) suffered the most catastrophic flood in memory. Sixteen people have died. The flood destroyed the livelihood of thousands of people of that region. Two thousands of them lost everything, their houses, barns, animals, workshops, machinery, their cars. And all the remaining buildings were badly damaged. However, the devastation of the agriculture made all the people victims. Beside the farms, the flood also damaged the public buildings, such as churches, schools, town halls, and cultural halls. Some of the bridges and the roads became temporarily inaccessible.

Grief took hold of not only those families losing their loved ones, but entire communities. A thirty second video film by a teenager surfaced afterward as a dramatic witness. A family who tried to find refuge in the attic of their house already covered by water, lost hope of surviving. The teenager recorded their farewell:

“This is …. talking from Székely-Szentmihály. It’s over… The end of the world has come. That’s it… If someone finds this, please remember us.”

This family did survive.

Later the cause of the tragedy became evident: the post-communist era opened ways for unchecked greed and criminal negligence. Those who were to protect the society didn’t. Illegally clear-cut forests above the valley brought disaster upon the villages.

The relief and reconstruction efforts demonstrated compassion and solidarity, true heroism by people and organizations across Transylvania, Hungary, countries in Europe and Unitarians in the United States. They responded with impressive financial support. Perhaps the most significant gift came from the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, NY and its Veatch Program.

Beside donations pouring in, hundreds of people from the neighboring region came to help with physical work, participating in the massive cleaning and disinfecting first of all. They sheltered the victims in their own houses and provided food, clothing, basic necessities to them. During the first days even some 50 ministers and priests volunteered. Leaders of the Unitarian Youth Organization carried out the main planning and aid distribution tasks.

Then came the reconstruction work by volunteers and generous donors. Houses were rebuilt one after another, churches, schools and other community buildings repaired. An emergency committee was formed, demonstrating an amazing efficiency.

Remarkably, this local emergency committee created two decades ago, has grown into the Providence Charity Organization, now a major relief organization of the Hungarian Unitarian Church. One of their numerous projects is an ecumenical, sustained support of the Hungarian communities in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

At the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, villages of the Nyikó valley will hold a commemoration on August 23rd. At this occasion they also wish to express their deep gratitude for all those who helped the victims rebuild their homes and their lives.

They extend their invitation also to anyone close or far to join their commemoration on August 23rd in the village of Kobátfalva (Cobatesti).

After flood chronical

On August 23^rd, 2005 a terrible flood has destroyed the lifetime work of thousands of people along the Nyikó river and in other regions of Udvarhelyszék. This tragedy not only caused severe economical damages, but also 16 persons have lost their lives. More than two thousand people were affected by the flood directly, but due to agricultural damages almost everyone is a flood victim in these villages. Along the Nyikó river a lot of houses were totally destroyed, and some were highly damaged. Many workshops, equerries, barns and secondary buildings crashed; the water drifted away animals, cars, machinery. The crop was destroyed on many thousands of hectares. The flood took away the already harvested crops and hay stored on the farms. Next to the farms the flood also damaged the public buildings, such as churches, schools, town halls, and cultural halls. Some of the bridges and the roads became temporarily inaccessible.

The catastrophe caused by the flood touched everyone. There are no words to express the grief of those who have lost their loved ones. The fear of death has penetrated into the lives of hundreds, and it will take a long time to overcome this fear. Weeks after the flood a short video film was sent to me, made by a teenager. The film is around thirty seconds recording the flood. He wanted this film to be a farewell on behalf of his family. They found refuge in the attic of their house covered by water: ”This is (…name…) talking from Székelyszentmihály. It’s over… The end of the world has come. That’s it… If someone finds this, please remember us.” Thank God this family survived. Now, months after the flood we remember the victims but we also remember the way in which people joined forces to help those in need. In those days and weeks many people helped the flood victims through voluntary work and through donations. Many people from Székelyföld, from all around Transylvania, from Hungary, from different countries of Europe, from the Unitarian Universalist congregations of the USA, and from all over the world reached out to help. We thank them all!

In the followings my paper will become more personal, because I would like to present to you the happenings in which I have also been participating. On the 18th-21^st of August, the current year, the Dávid Ferenc Unitarian Youth Association (DFUYA) organized its annual most important program, the 29^th Transylvanian Unitarian Youth Conference in Kobátfalva. We had 230 attenders. The villagers had helped us in a great way organizing this program. They helped us prepare this event, and they assisted us materially and spiritually. The raised donations, they provided us room and board, they cooked for us, etc. In the afternoon of August 23^rd after the conference has ended, I also said goodbye to those who became my friends during this great work. But none of us knew that we would meet sooner, than we have expected, namely on the next day.

On the evening of the 23^rd of August I was in Segesvár, and there I learned about the catastrophe, so the next day I have changed directions and I went back to Kobátfalva. I drove the car belonging to the DFUYA, holding as much bread and water that I could fit into the car. On my way back I have spoken with some of my fellows from the DFUYA, asking them to come back as soon as they can. In Kobátfalva I have first met Rev. Szombatfalvi József, the dean of the Unitarian Church District of Székelykeresztúr, and Bán Gagyi János, a teacher from Kobátfalva. With the help of some local youth we started to organize the aid. We contacted many people through the phone, to ask for donations and voluntary work.

On the same day I have contacted those – who according to my judgement – were able to lead the aid programme in the neighboring villages. Together we made an assessment of the situation, regarding the flood victims, the destroyed and highly damaged houses, and the most urgent needs. Later that evening we saw the whole picture. We put together a list of the things we had to do, and we helped the locals to form action groups. We also appointed two organizational centers in which we meant to receive the donations: the school of Kobátfalva and the Unitarian parish of Siménfalva. We named the people whose work was to receive, to register and to classify the donations. We did our best to thank all for their help. We tried to stay in touch with them, and to share further needs and requests. We had to store some of the shipment while we were working on making the packages for the families. We have tried to make sure that the donations arrive to the victims according to the possibilities in the affected villages. Sometimes we shipped the packages to each house, in other cases the flood victims were called to the gather for the distribution of the donations. We permanently refreshed the list of needs, and depending on the possibilities, we focused on the exceptional cases too. The parish of Siménfalva was the distribution point for the victims living in that village and in Rugonfalva. The school of Kobátfalva was the distribution point for Székelyszentmihály, Nagykadács, Kiskadács and Kobátfalva.

Other members of our group organized the cleaning and the repairing operations. In the first two weeks many people from different villages and towns came to do voluntary work in the flood zone. Some of them came without calling, others were asked to come and help. There were thirty men from the military squad of Csíkszereda who also helped. (For example on the 27^th of August there have been around 100 voluntary workers in Kobatfalva.) In order to manage the cleaning operations quickly, we needed machinery and equipment. In this regard the local sources were very poor. Finally some benefactors offered to help us out. In order to be more efficient both with the action groups and with the machinery we put together a schedule, a list of the things that needed to be done by them. Every night we put together the schedule for the next day, which was often modified in the morning because of the unexpected, but warmly greeted volunteers. These plannings had their results. For example in Kobátfalva nor the voluntary workers, nor the machinery crossed each other’s way, or activity. The whole village was cleaned from top to bottom. Each house, yard, and garden was cleaned. The mud, the garbage, the ruins of the buildings were taken away in a suitable manner. We have also used the industrial water pumps in the same way. Some of the volunteers and engineers stayed for more days at Kobátfalva, so we had to provide them food and shelter. As I have already said, we had a board meeting every evening. There we evaluated the achievements of the day, we checked the stocks in each of the distribution centers, we put together the list for the next day, and shared the work among the action groups. In the beginning this work took a lot of time, especially because we had a board meeting every evening in Kobátfalva, our center, and in two neighboring villages as well.

We were aware of the fact that after a huge flood like the one we had in the Udvarhely region the possibility of an epidemic was very likely, so we urged the officials to start the vaccinations and take the sanitary measures (like the disposal of the animal corpses). In case of future floodings it is essential to be prepared for these things too!

Keeping in touch with the donators and the volunteers, with the representatives of the media, the similar action groups and the different institutions was an important side of our organizational work. We collected the data of the flood damages, we framed the general situation of the damaged region, we summarized the most important requests of the victims, and we channeled this information through flyers printed in three languages to the donators. We also created a database of pictures made about the families and institutions which were highly damaged by the water. So our fundraising activity and our public relation activity was a continuous one.

Let’s take a look to the donations of the first days. What kind of donation did we ask for, what was brought in the first period? Drinkable water, bread and other basic food supplies, disinfecting and cleaning lotions, blankets, clothes, rubber boots, working tools and kitchen equipment etc. Some donators supplied warm food for several days for the flood victims. During the following weeks we started to receive other donations as well, such as grain crops, building materials, school equipment etc. The shipment of all the donations required money. If we couldn’t arrange the transportation we had to cover the expenses. In this situation, asking for cash seemed to be more reasonable. We didn’t distribute cash among the flood victims but purchase tickets. In this activity as well we wanted to be as fair as we could be, so we evaluated the loss of each household and we distributed the tickets proportionally. We created a survey sheet with 121 columns, through which we evaluated the damage made to each household. As you can see, our aim was to get the broader picture of everybody’s individual loss and damage.

In the first two weeks the helping activities were more first aid-like. Later we started the more time-consuming activities such as renovating or, in some cases, reconstructing the damaged or totally destroyed houses, barns and fences. We tried to find those people who were able and willing to donate their money for the constructions. We dreamed about new houses for those whose was completely taken away by the flood. When a certain amount of money came together we did not hesitate to lay the foundation for the first house. Only the fools start constructions in the fall, some told us. But discouragement couldn’t stop us. We worked further… We thought that if the benefactors see that we are really capable of building a house, they will support us in building others too. We were right, so now 4 family houses are being built. We are aware of the fact that we couldn’t respect the traditional architectural style of this area. Next to this the new houses have been built in the flood area, which means that the next flood will have the possibility to hit them again.

It was very clear for us even during the first days that the damage, made by the flood in a few hours, was so enormous that it would take us a long time and very hard work to come back to our normal lifestyle. Because we all understood that we have to work for a longer period of time, we have decided to change our action group into a Relief Committee. So we did on the 5^th of September. The aim of our Relief Committee is to provide a long-time assistance for the flood victims from the following villages: Kobátfalva, Székelyszentmihály, Nagykadács and Kiskadács. Our work (still) contains fundraising, channeling the donations in a just way, rebuilding the destroyed homes, restoring the public buildings. To the end of August the mayor’s office in Siménfalva restarted its normal activity; the local government is doing its job again. So we have decided to let the leaders of the local government, and the boards of the two churches, Unitarian and Calvinist, to take care of the flood victims in Siménfalva. We plan to concentrate on other four villages.

The members of the committee are: local organizers, representatives of the church communities, of the DFUYA and of the flood victims. Of course having this committee doesn’t mean that we don’t keep in touch with other institutions or groups. On the contrary, we would like to make as many people involved in this work as it is possible. We actually have a great cooperation with different action groups, with the local governments, with humanitarian organizations, with institutions, and with everybody who is willing to help the needy. We soon started to work together with groups like us from other flooded places, with different aid organizations, churches, institutions and with everyone who wanted to help.

Another important aspect of our work is to keep the village communities informed. As in the previous months, we plan to have village meetings in the future as well. These meetings will offer the possibility for everybody in the village to get to know our work, and to express their suggestions and complaints. Hopefully we’ll mutually be able to clarify the misunderstandings, and rebuild the trust among us.

With the help of professionals we also would like to offer pastoral counseling to the flood victims. With some spiritual help hopefully they will be able to cure the wounds caused by the terrible shock.

I’m sure we’ll keep in our hearts for ever the day when the bishop of the Unitarian Church visited this region together with the leadership of the church and with more then 50 ministers on September 2^nd. They came with shovels, with buckets, but also as pastoral counselors, to help the victims keep the faith and hope in themselves and in their future. The same pastoral help came with the Reformed bishop, Tőkés László, who visited us on the 3^rd of September. The worship services, the prayers, the counselings helped all of us restart our everyday life.

We try to keep a good atmosphere in this region. We try to emphasize our connectedness to each other. To pursue these two main goals we think it’s important to influence the people through cultural events, such as organizing performances (folkdance, renaissance music, reciting poems etc.) in the villages.

This spring together with our sponsors we plan the renewal of the village center of Kobátfalva. Next to that we plan to rebuild and enlarge the school and the kindergarten, and to deepen the bed of the Bodolló stream in Kobátfalva. In Kiskadács we want to rebuild a bridge and to build a chapel. In Székelyszentmihály we also plan to redesign the village center. It’s a huge plan to do something about the deepening of the bed of the Nyikó river. We plan to educate ourselves regarding the civil action works. There is a lot to learn about how should we act as responsible citizens in a catastrophe situation, such as flood, fire, etc. We are looking for opportunities where we can learn about the above mentioned issues. It’s a heart warming feeling to know that out there in the world there are so many compassionate, wonderful people who would like to help us both financially and being present, working together with us. When I say out there, I’m thinking about Transylvania, Hungary, USA, the Netherlands and the other helpful countries.

After three months of work we felt that it is time to talk about our achievements and future plans especially with those who helped us in our work in solving the problems of the flooded Nyikó valley.

Finally I turn to God, and I ask Him / Her to spare everyone around the world from calamities. However if catastrophes need to happen then I ask Him / Her to send such compassionate, generous, heartful givers, voluntary workers and coorganizers He / She sent us this year, in that sorrowful August and in the following months.