Lejla Zalihić from Butorović Polje near Konjic is a living hero of the catastrophic floods that hit Herzegovina and the Neretva River basin, taking at least 16 lives. She saved her daughter’s life in a way only the bravest can, and that’s undoubtedly mothers.
Lejla’s 13-year-old daughter was swept away by the floodwaters during the chaos, carried nearly three kilometers downstream. Lejla immediately jumped in after her, leaping from the third floor of their house and swimming those three kilometers to save her.
“I don’t know what time it was, maybe around midnight. My husband, our 13-year-old daughter, and I were asleep, and my mother-in-law was on the second floor. A neighbor called us and told us to run because the house would flood. We went to the window and saw the water coming. We climbed to the second floor, but the water kept rising. I grabbed some basic things, like documents and such,” she told Avaz.
They watched from the window as the water carried away their car, and the house began to sway due to the water.
“We climbed to the third floor and called the mountain rescue service, emergency services, and the police. However, the bridge that led to us was impassable, and they couldn’t get to us,” said Zalihić.
They felt the house shaking and knew what was going to happen, but they didn’t know if they would make it out.
“We felt the house shake very hard once, then a second and third time, and we fell with it. I remember hearing my husband, mother-in-law, and daughter screaming, and then I don’t remember anything else,” she recalled.
“My daughter noticed the light from the phone in my hand and started calling out to me. I couldn’t get to her because of the wood, things, and appliances. I pushed them, dived under them, and climbed over them to get to her. When I found her, I pulled her along, it was very difficult, my boots were soaked, and my clothes were wet, but we managed to reach the shore where we sat for about an hour and a half. We were trying to figure out where to go, we didn’t know which way to go,” added Zalihić.
Then they saw a young man floating on a raft. She called out to him to take a thinner piece of wood and push himself to shore, and he managed to reach them.
“The three of us then went through the forest trying to reach the first house that wasn’t flooded so we could change and come to our senses because we were wet, muddy, beaten, and barefoot. I don’t remember all the details, I’m still dazed, I know we got to a house where the police and civil protection arrived and took us to the emergency room,” she said.
She didn’t know anything about her husband; later they told her he was alive, but they still hadn’t found her mother-in-law. She says she can see that her daughter is traumatized and hopes that this won’t leave her with lasting consequences because she is at a very sensitive age. “My husband and his brother went to Butorović Polje to search for missing people, primarily his mother,” said Zalihić.
Lejla has visible injuries and is hospitalized, her husband and daughter are fine, but her mother-in-law is still missing.
Article: Serbian Times/Klix
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