The 2005 European floods hit mainly Romania, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, as well as several other countries in Central Europe and Eastern Europe during August 2005. The disaster came at a time when Portugal was suffering from intense forest fires which left 15 dead and days before the powerful Hurricane Katrina hit the United States. Death toll The death toll was 62, with 31 dead in Romania, 20 in Bulgaria, 6 in Switzerland, and 5 in Austria and Germany. Thousands were evacuated from their homes; the rains were the worst flooding to hit Europe since the 2002 floods. Affected regions Romania Romania was the most affected by the 2005 floods, as it was faced with the most powerful and widespread floods and also the highest loss of life, with 31 dead. Total damages are estimated to be valued at more than 5 billion lei (€1.5 billion). In mid August, the North-East region of Romania was heavily affected, with 1,473 evacuated from their homes in Iași, Suceava and Botoșani starting from August 16. In Suceava county, 555 km of roads were affected, while nearly 600 bridges were flooded, resulting in the flooding of 520 houses, 16 of which were significantly destroyed. Several communications networks, particularly electric cables and optical fibres, were also affected. Before it had ended, on August 22, 2005, the Ministry of Interior was reported as saying that floods and landslides affected over 500 villages in 31 districts: 200 homes completely destroyed, 2,000+ other structures affected, 11,000 households flooded, 9,000 wells flooded with rainfall and groundwater displacement, 34,000+ hectares of farmland and 2,000+ hectares of forests and grasslands destroyed, 9 kilometers of highway, 265 kilometers of county roads and 906 other roads were all severely damaged, and 25 cities lost power. Floods were particularly acute in the central county of Harghita, where flooding hit the town of Odorheiu Secuiesc and surrounding localities in mid-to-late August. The flooding was most intense in the period from 24 to 25 August, when ten people were killed, a further five were declared missing and 1,400 households were flooded. Other counties significantly affected in late August were Mureș, Prahova and Bistrița-Năsăud. The city of Târgu Mureș, an important regional centre, was also affected by the rising of waters on the Târnava River, even though there wasn't a significant amount of damage caused to infrastructure. In northwestern Romania, the counties of Bihor and Cluj were