They are heroes of Serbian Siberia: We fought our way through blizzard, nobody remembers such storm

A terrible blizzard that swept some parts of Serbia in the past few days has claimed one life and left dozens of people stranded on the Pester Plateau. As the footage and photographs show and the locals themselves say - nobody can remember a similar storm.

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Photo: Private archive

Elvis Dacic, a Sjenica man told Telegraf.rs that he was not one of those snowed in for hours on the roads in long columns of cars, but one of those who wanted to come to the aid of the people whose vehicles were covered with snow.

Dacic described the dramatic situations he found himself in during the night an unprecedented blizzard hit his area.

Photo: Telegraf reader

"Although the entire mechanization was on the ground, as were the police and firefighters, we citizens felt the need to help people who got snowed-in snowdrifts several meters deep. With a few friends, I set out towards those stranded in the snow," Elvis begins.

As he explains, they first came across a bus full of passengers, who were stuck in snowdrifts on the Sjenica-Nova Varos road.

"They had already received help, but the cars behind were blocked and we could only reach them by making our way through the snowdrifts via surrounding meadows. By accident the brother of one of us was in one of the cars... fate. We fought with all our might to help anyone who was snowed in and managed to do so after the bus was unblocked first," Dacic recalls the dramatic scenes.

Photo: Private archive

On another road, Sjenica-Novi Pazar, a real drama also played out where one person died from the effects of freezing.

"Dozens of people, including children and one 15-day-old baby, have been rescued thanks to Sjenica heroes Jusmir Selmanovic, Sefcet Dacic and Fuad Karisik. They even had to break windshields and pull out people who were on the verge of freezing," Elvis told Telegraf.rs.

He added that he is proud of his fellow citizens who participated in the rescue of the stranded people in this part of Serbia. As he says, people kept coming to offer help.

"It was cold, we were treading on snowdrifts, wet, and on top of that, a strong wind was blowing. People who were stuck felt scared because they never experienced such a thing. Older people in Sjenica say they don't remember this kind of weather. However, because of all these people who came out in a strong storm to help, I am very proud of my fellow citizens who have a big and firm heart," Elvis concludes.

With -40 degrees centigrade, Sjenica is among 20 coldest cities in Europe

Otherwise, cold weather is not unusual for this part of Serbia, especially for Sjenica, often called "the Serbian Siberia."

According to long-time meteorologist Sulejman Heman Muftarevic, Sjenica is one of the coldest towns in Europe, to be exact, ranks among the 20 coldest.

He explained that the reason for low temperatures in Sjenica is that the Sjenica-Pester plateau is located at more than 1,000 meters above sea level.

Photo: Mateja Beljan

"The average is 1,100 to 1,350 meters. There are two valleys on the plateau, the Pester basin in the area of ​​Karajukic Bunar and the Sjenica basin in the center of the town. During an anticyclone, when the weather is nice, when we have snow cover, there is the so-called inversion of temperature, that is, after sunset, after insulation, cold air comes down in the form of a wedge from the surrounding mountains of Jadovnik, Golija, Ozren, Zilindar, Ninaja. Being heavier, it suppresses warm air in the form of a wedge, taking its place and looking for the lowest points. In other words, the Sjenica basin is the lowest point, from the post office to the market, that is the coldest part of the town," said Muftarevic.

According to him, this is where he measured -36 degrees on January 13, 1985, while it was -40.4 degrees near the post office at 7:30 am. But the institute did not acknowledge this temperature because it was not measured at the weather station.

(D. Simic)