Berlin: Flood waters continued to rise in Germany and much of Central Europe Tuesday, with rivers swelling to their highest levels in generations, causing at least 12 deaths and billions of euros in damages.
Some low-lying areas on the outskirts of Prague flooded as waters there peaked Tuesday, while waters continued to rise from Dresden up through northern Germany in what is being described as the worst flooding to hit parts of the region in nearly 60 years.
The river Inn along the Austrian-German border floods fields and farmland near the south-eastern German city of Passau, Tuesday.
Hungary and Slovakia are now bracing for much of the same devastation later this week, as Danube River levels are expected to climb a record three meters (9.8 feet) higher than current levels in Budapest by Wednesday.
So far, the Czech Republic has confirmed seven deaths related to the flooding. Travel and shipping across much of the region has been disrupted, with schools closing and thousands being evacuated from low-lying areas.
Devastation from the flooding now threatens to surpass that of the floods that ravaged the same region in 2002, which wreaked damage estimated at €11.8 billion ($15.3 billion) in Germany and €3 billion in Austria.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel toured the Bavarian city of Passau, one of the hardest hit by the floods, with Bavarian premier Horst Seehofer on Tuesday. Pledging an initial €100 million in federal emergency aid for the region, she promised to release more funds if needed. "What matters now is that aid gets to people fast," she said, as she stopped to shake hands with some of the 30,000 emergency workers deployed in the region.
The flooding is ravaging the region just months before national and Bavarian regional elections in September, and Ms. Merkel is eager to avoid any missteps in handling the natural disaster. Though Ms. Merkel remains popular in the polls, both she and her political opponents are mindful of the political impact of the devastating floods of 2002.
Then Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who had been lagging in the polls, made a dramatic comeback one month before general elections by donning rubber boots and a rain jacket to tour flood-devastated regions of eastern Germany and quickly establishing a disaster relief fund. His Social Democratic Party quickly cut the healthy lead of the conservatives and went on to win the election.
In Passau, where the Danube joins with the Inn and Ilz rivers, waters have risen above markers erected in 1954, when the city endured its worst flooding in the last century. In the historic German city of Dresden, the Elbe River water level is expected to peak Wednesday evening at just below 2002 levels before moving further northwest to the towns of Magdeburg and Hamburg.
Floodwaters in the Czech Republic have forced 10,000 people out of their homes since Sunday. The Vltava River water level peaked Tuesday morning but the swelling Elbe River, called Labe in the Czech Republic, is continuing to move north. Fields and villages near the town of Melnik, perched above the confluence of the two rivers, have been flooded. On Wednesday, the Elbe is expected to equal its all-time high, recorded during the massive floods in 2002 near the border of Germany at the town of Usti nad Labem, local authorities said.
"In Prague and central parts of the Czech Republic the situation is stabilizing but we can't rule out more evacuation being needed in northern parts of the country," said Nicole Zaoralova, a spokeswoman for the Czech fire and emergency rescue service.
Local flash floods, caused by steady rains and thunderstorms, may still hit towns and villages in the northeast of the Czech Republic Wednesday or later, Petr Dvorak, the spokesman of the Czech CHMI weather office.
In Poland, rain storms accompanied by strong winds and sometimes hail have caused light flooding in the southwest of the country near the borders with Germany and the Czech Republic. In the village of Biskupice, near Krakow in south-central Poland, rainwater had also flooded roads and the basements of rural homes. Since Monday, Polish firefighters have responded 1,800 times to remove broken tree branches and whole trees, and pump water out of basements.
In Austria, more than 2,400 homes have been evacuated, according to an interior ministry spokesman. Several regional governments have already indicated that financial assistance will be made available to the affected, he added. The flooding is easing as waters flow east. All rivers are registering higher levels in Austria, amid scattered showers.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared Tuesday an emergency for the areas expected to be hit the hardest and asked people living in the counties in northwest Hungary, next to the Slovak border, to prepare for evacuation.
The government has freed up funds from the state budget to finance the preparation and rescue costs and started to mobilize the specialists and rescue teams, Mr. Orban said after a meeting of the government's coordination committee that is tasked with handling emergency situations.
Hungary plans to mobilize about 8,000 soldiers, another 8,000 emergency personnel, 1,400 flood specialists and 3,600 police personnel, he added. |
