Devastating floods hit certain parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) a few days ago. Dzenad Dzino, a well-known BiH photographer, shared his experience on his official Facebook profile, mentioning that he had been in Donja Jablanica two days earlier. Among other things, he shared a heart-wrenching story with the public.
“This morning in Donja Jablanica, I ran into a friend. I saw he was alive and well. His face showed fear, sadness, and pain… We greeted each other, and then I paused, unsure of what to ask him that wouldn’t cause him more pain or make the situation harder… We’ve known each other our whole lives, though he’s ten years older than me… We looked at each other, and he started to talk.
‘Dzeno, that night at 1:00 a.m., I was listening to the pounding rain that was falling. I couldn’t sleep, I was sitting on the bed in silence. Around 2:00 a.m., I heard rocks rolling through the canal next to the house, but that had happened before, so I didn’t pay much attention. Ten minutes later, a huge roar echoed,’” he shared two days ago.
He continued in his Facebook post:
“I looked out the bedroom window and saw the whole mountain sliding towards our house… Out of fear, I screamed. I ran to the other side of the house, and from the balcony, I saw neighbors coming out of their house, which was already half-filled with mud, water, and trees… At that moment, I fainted, and I don’t know how long I was unconscious. When I woke up, I saw I was lying between the bed and the window… I heard the sound of a shovel, and I got up to see my brother shoveling dirt. Everything around the house looked white, and I asked him when the snow had fallen. He told me, ‘Can’t you see there are no houses around us?’ I turned, looked, and started vomiting… When I gathered myself a little, we began rescuing our neighbors. At that moment, he started crying, and I tried to hold back my tears as much as I could… ‘Do you know what hurts me the most, Dzeno?’ I asked him, ‘What, my friend?’ ‘No one mentioned Zilho, the waiter, the young man who, before my eyes, saved ten people. Zilho, Keno, and Gera… Those are three heroes I haven’t read about anywhere yet. You won’t hear anything from them, nor will they talk about it, but please write this so people know about them.’ Standing above the house were three men from Donja Jablanica who were listening to our conversation, confirming everything my friend was saying, and through tears, they praised these three brave lions, as they called them, from Donja Jablanica. My dear boys, I tip my hat to you, even though I know you were just doing what you were raised to do at home, which is always and forever to help anyone in need,” he wrote in his post.
