The extent of the damage caused by the recent torrential rain in the capital city was gauged at about 20 million lei. Mayor Ion Ceban said the Chisinau Municipal Council is to convene and he will ask this to increase the reserve fund, IPN reports.

“During these three days, we have been on our own. This is regrettable,” the mayor told a news conference on Friday. This happens at a time when locals say that they haven’t seen such tempests for a long period of time. The thunderstorm affected educational institutions, including kindergartens where playgrounds were renovated and the children hadn’t even seen them.

“Chisinau is also part of the Republic of Moldova. It is not a separate island. At this stage, we agreed that we will make official approaches given that the Army or the carabineer didn’t find it opportune to intervene. We will make an official approach to have the costs covered, at least for educational institutions. It goes to about 12.5 million lei at the current stage,” noted Ion Ceban.

Over 1,500 employees of different municipal divisions and more that 150 vehicles were engaged in cleaning works on Thursday. The employees of the Green Areas Association worked at night too. There were contracted a number of private services.

The districts of Râșcani and Ciocana were the worst hit. The authorities estimate that the cleanup works will be completed on Saturday or next Monday at the latest. Later, the gathered waste will be taken away.

The mayor said that in the Chisinau Municipal Council’s meeting next week, he will request to increase the reserve fund so that the municipality is able to cope with the costs incurred to deal with the consequences of the torrential rain and high winds.