Flooding from heavy rains in Albania is neither a new phenomenon nor a rarity, but a repeated calamity every-time. In major cities it often a nuisance because of flooded roads and some basements, but it’s mostly a one to two day thing, while in the rest of the country, with the north and south in particular the situation can go from bad to worse in a matter of hours!
This past two days of heavy rains did not only flood most of our cities but also cause two fatalities.
My own city of Tirana had a repeated flooding of most major roads and even parts of the main highway linking Tirana with Durres. Thankfully this was during the weekend, with minimal levels of traffic and people outside, but it was disruptive and damaging nonetheless.
Authorities were a bit better at responding to the various issues caused by flooding but there is still systemic and infrastructural issues that have not been addressed for years.