In the Polish city of Nysa, volunteers rallied to fortify structures against engorged waterways on Tuesday, just one of numerous municipalities throughout central Europe that is grappling with disastrous flooding that has so far claimed at least nineteen lives.
In the Czech Republic, rivers continued to exceed their banks, while water levels in the Danube river surged in Slovakia and Hungary. Additionally, both Austria and Romania have experienced significant flooding.
Since the weekend, the areas on the Czech-Polish border have been among the most severely affected, with torrential, debris-strewn rivers wreaking havoc on historic towns, collapsing bridges and destroying residential structures.
Romania’s death toll due to the floods currently stands at seven. The floodwaters have, however, receded since the weekend. Meanwhile, Poland has reported four deaths, Austria five, and the Czech Republic three. In both the Czech Republic and Poland, scores of households remain devoid of electricity or clean water.
During the night, volunteers assisted rescue teams to pile sandbags, aiming to reinforce the damaged embankment encircling Nysa, a southwestern Polish city home to in excess of 40,000 people.
The national head of the fire department, Mariusz Feltynowski, confirmed on Tuesday that the Nysa embankment was secured, with military helicopters brought in to airlift sandbags as part of the endeavour.
Despite assurances from Prime Minister Donald Tusk that stringent actions would be taken against looters, some residents, in trepidation of looting, returned to inspect their homes, following evacuation orders issued on Monday.
Poland has officially declared a state of disaster for the area and has allocated 1 billion zlotys (equivalent to €234 million) to aid the flood victims.
Meanwhile, in Wroclaw, Poland’s third-largest city and one of historical significance, preparations continued in anticipation of the Oder river cresting.
During a crisis meeting, Jacek Sutryk, the Mayor of Wroclaw, communicated that buses have been made ready for potential evacuation requirements. He also mentioned plans to fortify more embankments specifically in the Odra river basin area. The city zoo is seeking helping hands in bagging sand to safeguard animal habitats. Concurrently, workers and volunteers are shifting around 450,000 publications from the main church archive to the higher storeys in the Archdiocesan Archives building for safety.
The Polish administration has managed to fill a large reservoir near the Czech border to about 80% of its capacity. This strategic move helps in reducing water levels to avert simultaneous flood peaks in the Oder and Nysa, similar to the disastrous floods that occurred in Wroclaw in 1997.
In the meantime, the Czech Republic’s adjacent region, Josef Belica, the governor, reported that 15,000 residents in the northeastern Moravia-Silesia area were relocated. Assistance is being airlifted to regions sequestered due to floods. The financial fallout from the flood crisis across Central Europe is projected to be in the range of several hundred million to over €1 billion according to evaluations by credit ratings agency Morningstar DBRS. However, Belica expects the damage to his region alone to exceed €1.3 billion.
The Ostrava city in northeastern Czech witnessed flooding in its industrial area due to a breached barrier at the merging point of Oder and Opava rivers. Key infrastructures like the BorsodChem chemical plant and the OKK Koksovny coking plant were impacted.
In Hungary, authorities have assembled portable dams in historical towns like Visegrad and Szentendre, located to the north of Budapest, to brace for potential floods from the Danube. To protect it, residents in Budapest are reinforcing Margaret Island, a popular recreational spot that boasts hotels and eateries, with thousands of sandbags, expecting water levels close to historical highs. The Hungarian authorities have also pledged to employ as many military personnel as needed, with around 1,400 already actively assisting in flood defence operations.
In Slovakia, the Environment Minister Tomas Taraba stated that the Danube had touched nearly 10m overnight and the water levels were now expected to drop gradually. He projected the total flood damage in the country at €20 million.
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