Great river flood

I can’t get out of my head one event from the 1960s, and it happened in my hometown. Due to the "hundred-year-old" rains, a large hill of land collapsed in the upper course of the river and created a natural dam. The rain still did not stop falling, weak local roads in those years in the rural part, so the danger was not even noticed. One half-sunny morning, when the rain finally gave way, that rampart of earth and twigs gave way in the river canyon. Millions of liters of accumulated water above that natural dam suddenly fell on a small town located a few kilometers downstream, causing enormous material damage and killing some people. But why do I keep it all in my head? The continuation of the story is interesting for us fishermen. A professor, my neighbor, tells me how he found several fish in puddles and mud in the garden in front of his house. All this would be almost normal, if his house was not 150 meters away from the river! They even have two asphalt roads between the river and the mentioned house. There was so much flooding, and this in the picture is the city of Zagreb in 1964.

Ne mogu izbaciti iz glave jedan događaj iz šezdesetih godina prošlog stoljeća, a desio se u mom rodnom mjestu. Uslijed "stogodišnjih" kiša se u gornjem toku rijeke odronilo veliko brdo zemlje i napravilo prirodnu branu. Kiša i dalje nije prestajala padati, slabi lokalni putevi tih godina u ruralnom dijelu, pa se opasnost nije ni primijetila. Jednog polusunčanog jutra, kada je kiša napokon popustila svoju rabotu, taj bedem od zemlje i granja je popustio u kanjonu rijeke. Milioni litara akumulirane vode iznad te prirodne brane se odjedanput sručilo na gradić koji se nalazi nekoliko kilometara nizvodno, napravivši ogromnu materijalnu štetu i usmrtivši neke ljude. Ali zašto ja to sve držim u glavi? Nastavak priče je zanimljiv za nas ribolovce. Priča mi jedan profesor, moj komšija, kako je u bašti ispred svoje kuće pronašao nekoliko riba u lokvama i blatu. Sve bi to bilo skoro pa normalno i očekivano, da ta njegova kuća nije udaljena 150 metara od rijeke! Imaju čak dva asfaltirana puta između rijeke i pomenute kuće. Eto tolika je poplava bila, a ovo na slici je grad Zagreb 1964. godine.