Warsaw. Unusually heavy rains across central Europe have caused deadly flooding in the region, with four more deaths reported Monday in Poland, three in the Czech Republic and one in Romania.
Floods have inundated parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania as a low-pressure front has passed through, dumping record downpours for days on the region, and is expected to hit Slovakia and Hungary later in the week. Sixteen deaths have been reported so far: seven in Romania, five in Poland, three in the Czech Republic and one in Austria.
In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared flooded areas a disaster zone after an emergency meeting, a government measure to facilitate evacuations and rescues. He also announced that the government would provide $260 million in immediate payments to victims.
Across the country, floodwaters have caused dams and dikes to break, and receding waters have left streets covered in debris and mud. A hospital in the southwestern town of Nysa evacuated about 40 patients.
Schools and offices in the affected areas were closed on Monday and drinking water and food were distributed by truck. Many Polish cities, including the capital Warsaw, have appealed for food donations for flood survivors.
Experts have warned of flooding due to the rising Oder River in Opole, a city of about 130,000 inhabitants, and in Wroclaw, home to around 640,000 people, where disastrous floods were recorded in 1997.
Firefighters in southwestern Poland said the victims included a surgeon whose body was found Monday morning in Nysa after a shift at the hospital. The bodies of two women and two men were found in other communities in the region.
Czech police say a woman and two men have drowned in the northeastern part of the country, which has seen record rainfall since Thursday. The woman was found in the water in the town of Krasov and the men were found in separate locations after the water level in Krnov, a town that was almost completely submerged on Sunday, dropped.
Romanian authorities reported on Monday the death of another person in the eastern county of Galati, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to seven.
Austria had already reported one death earlier.
In the Czech Republic, authorities have declared a state of emergency in two northeastern regions, including the Jeseniky Mountains near the border with Poland.
In Hungary, Budapest’s mayor has warned residents that the worst flooding in a decade is expected to hit the capital later this week, with floodwaters from the Danube River likely to overflow the city’s lower quays on Tuesday morning.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has cancelled planned trips abroad, including an address to the European Parliament on Wednesday, where a heated debate was expected over his conduct since the country assumed the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union in July.
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– 2024-09-23 10:59:21
