A car among debris following the floods in Ladek-Zdroj, southern Poland. Photo / Mateusz Slodkowski, AFP
A car among debris following the floods in Ladek-Zdroj, southern Poland. Photo / Mateusz Slodkowski, AFP
At least 17 people have died and thousands have been displaced. “Relief is not expected to come before tomorrow, and more likely, the day after,” an official in Austria said.
At least 17 people were dead and several others missing on Monday after days of flooding in Central Europe. Thousandswere displaced, and with heavy rains continuing in some places, officials feared there could be more destruction ahead.
The floodwaters have ravaged towns, destroyed bridges and breached dams since intense rainfall from Storm Boris – a slow-moving, low-pressure system – began last week. Emergency workers have made daring rescues of people and even pets as officials assessed the scale of the damage.
For some, the disaster recalled the devastating floods that struck the region in July 1997, killing more than 100 people and driving thousands of others out of their homes.
“This was a very traumatic one for Poland – the one that is remembered,” Hubert Rozyk, a spokesperson for Poland’s Ministry of Climate and Environment, said of that disaster. “And in some places, the situation is even worse than in 1997.”
Here’s what we know about the destruction in some of the worst-hit countries.
Romania
Seven people have died in Romania, Raed Arafat, the head of the Department for Emergency Situations in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said in a phone call on Monday.
All of the deaths occurred overnight from Friday to Saturday and all in Galati County, he said, which is on the eastern border with Moldova. A preliminary evaluation found that about 5500 households in Galati were affected by floods. In Vaslui County, which is directly to the north, about 120 households were affected, he said.
He said it was “one of the worst floods in recent memory especially for that area”.
Romania’s Environment Minister, Mircea Fechet, told The Associated Press that some areas had received more than 42 gallons of rainfall per square metre. “What we are trying to do right now is save as many lives as possible,” he said.
Poland
Local residents stand among debris in a street damaged as a result of the floods in Ladek-Zdroj, southern Poland. Photo / Mateusz Slodkowski, AFP
At least five people have died, Piotr Blaszczyk, a spokesperson for the Government Security Centre, wrote in an email on Monday. He said the Government had not yet confirmed if their deaths were “directly connected to the catastrophic flooding,” but that initial reports suggested that they were found in “areas severely impacted by rising water levels”.
Even though the storm has passed, “many rivers are still swollen, and water levels remain precariously high, threatening additional damage to infrastructure, homes, and agricultural land,” he wrote.
Some flood barriers held; others were breached to devastating effect. Dams have been damaged or breached, including in Stronie Slaskie, a southwestern town on the Morawka River, said Anna Szumanska, a spokesperson for Poland’s infrastructure ministry. “Water began to flow uncontrolled,” she wrote in an email.
The ground is so saturated and the water levels are so high in some rivers that there is still a risk of further flooding, Blaszczyk said.
Polish officials were meeting on Monday to decide whether to declare a national disaster and Blaszczyk said temporary shelters have been erected in schools and community centres. Many officials have been working for days with little rest, Rozyk, the climate ministry spokesperson, said from Opole, a city in the flooded region.
“The situation is still not under control in all the places,” he said. “However, the rain stopped, so that’s good news.”
Members of the emergency services evacuate residents from the flooding in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Photo / Radek Mica, AFP
David Schön, a spokesperson for the Czech police, said at least two people had been killed in the floods and 12 were missing.
He said in an email that more than 12,000 people had been evacuated in the Moravian-Silesian region, the Olomouc region and the South Moravian region, all in the east.
Austria
A diversion sign stands upside down in the water near the town of Krumau am Kamp, Austria. Photo / Alex Halada, AFP
At least three people have been killed in Austria, according to Paul Eidenberger, a press officer for the interior ministry. One, a volunteer firefighter, died when he slipped on the stairs while pumping water out of a basement, Eidenberger said in an email. Two older men also died, apparently after being trapped inside their homes, he said.
The flooding has affected communities throughout the country, but “the most significant problems, damage, and flooding” are in Lower Austria, the state that surrounds Vienna, he said.
Vienna, which has about 2 million people, has also been hard hit. Public transit has been suspended or severely restricted, and the river “has become a raging torrent – normally, it carries only a few centimetres of water,” Eidenberger wrote.
Hundreds of people have been rescued from rooftops by helicopter. Eidenberger said tens of thousands of volunteers had been deployed across the country, about 20,000 in Lower Austria alone.
Dams are still threatening to overflow. “That’s the most difficult situation right now,” said Markus Duerauer, a liaison officer of the Lower Austrian Fire Brigade Association.
And the rain is still coming down hard. “Relief is not expected to come before tomorrow, and more likely, the day after,” Eidenberger wrote Monday morning.
