It's been a difficult year since record rainfall drenched the Balkans last spring, unleashing the worst flooding in more than 100 years and leaving a trail of destruction across Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. More than 70 people lost their lives, while hundreds of thousands of survivors had to evacuate as family homes and farms, roads and utilities were damaged or destroyed. Relentless summer and fall rains renewed flooding, which slowed recovery and threatened to keep many families from having warm and dry shelter in time for winter. "I have never felt so scared and helpless in all my life," recalls Ljubica, of the day last May when forceful floodwaters rushed through the doors and windows of her modest home in Šamac, Bosnia. She and her husband, Živko, both disabled, sat trapped and helpless as cold, muddy waters quickly rose toward the ceiling. Neighbors managed to carry the couple up to the attic where they spent 13 days living on food and water rations delivered by rescue boats and waiting for the floodwater to subside. When it did subside, their wood stove and water heater were all that was spared. Everything else in the couple's home of 40 years was carried away by water or buried under a foot of mud and silt.