Four days. That is how long it has been since the storm that hit Macedonia on 21 July, and on the „Partizanski odredi” boulevard in Skopje's Karposh a sheet of metal from a roof still hangs, snagged on the trees. The stretch of pavement is cordoned off with yellow tape, yet it remains unsafe for the passers-by who walk beneath it every day. Four days on, the danger is still exactly where it fell.

The Karposh municipality says it is one of the hardest-hit municipalities, with a large number of material damages, and that its services are in the field clearing up. „Our priority is the safety of citizens and the fastest possible return to the normal functioning of public space”, they say, thanking the people of Karposh for their patience. Patience that is, evidently, measured in days.

The scale of the storm was not small, and that is no excuse to be brushed aside lightly. The wind that blew in Skopje, Štip and Strumica that day reached hurricane strength, the Hydrometeorological Office confirmed. Over 9,000 calls came in to the emergency number 112. In Skopje alone, by 22:00, there were 117 damaged vehicles recorded, 35 damaged roofs, 189 fallen trees, seven traffic lights, five fires and 33 injured people.

The figures explain why the clean-up is taking time. But they do not explain why a piece of metal still hangs over the heads of passers-by four days later. The yellow tape is not a solution - it is an admission that the problem is known, and yet unresolved. When the next storm comes, and on the Balkans it always comes, the question will not be how fast we react, but why one dangerous sheet of metal had to wait so long to fall or be taken down.