Surrounded by floodwaters, Albanians refuse to leave home

Terra Daily via Agence France-Presse: Surrounded by raging waters, the villagers of Obot in northern Albania are determined to stay put to secure their modest homes flooded after heavy rains pelted this rural region for days. "If God has decided that I should die here, let it be. At least I will die in my house, with the only cow that I still have," 60-year-old Gjon Cepi said somberly from the first floor of his little house.

The ground floor is already flooded and only the contours of several pieces of furniture are visible under the murky waters. Obot, a small village with some 450 inhabitants, some ten kilometres (six miles) north from Shkodra, the main town in the area, has suddenly come under spotlights after disastrous floods swallowed more than ten thousand hectares (25,000 acres) of this Albanian farming region. A group of around a hundred villagers have refused to be evacuated from their homes, despite numerous calls by the authorities….