209 people were killed, 41,000 houses were damaged or totally destroyed (leaving at least 265,000 homeless),[3] over a million arable acres were inundated, over 100,000 sheep, pigs, cows and chickens (including over 35,000 head of cattle)[1] drowned, 146 factories were idled at least temporarily, and over 250 miles (400 km) of highway required repair.

[6] The Prahova,[6] Târnava, Olt (threatening Râmnicu Vâlcea and Slatina)[3] and Tisza[7] rivers were among those affected, as well as the Danube (which rose up to 6½ ft above normal spring high-water levels, flooding docks and port installations in Turnu Severin),[8] Prut and Siret.

[1] The floods also came in phases: for instance, the waters were just beginning to recede when on May 23–24 renewed heavy rain and snowfalls raised their level again.

On May 22, wearing a black turtleneck sweater, workman's cloth cap and farmer's jacket, Ceaușescu and high Romanian Communist Party leaders spent hours superintending the completion of a five-mile (8 km)-long earth and timber dike at Brăila.

While at the height of the floods, he made a sudden trip to Moscow, followed a week later by Prime Minister Ion Gheorghe Maurer, this worried Romanians and Ceaușescu then toured the country, saying over and over in speeches to flood victims that his policy remained unchanged—national independence and sovereignty, noninterference in the internal affairs of other states, equality between governments and between Communist parties, and the right of each party to shape its own policies.

[6] British aid organisations promised 50 tons of food, children's clothing and medicine, while West Germany sent a number of mobile water-purification units.

[3] Reflecting a drive for development and modernisation, the regime embarked upon a national land-improvement programme following the floods, covering drainage, irrigation, soil erosion, navigation, power, research and training in a comprehensive approach that departed from mere reliance upon control structures.