Europe floods: Death toll rises as Storm Boris wreaks havoc

The death toll caused by Storm Boris has risen to at least 16.

The Czech police said three people had died and eight still remain missing. The storm caused significant destruction across the affected area. In Romania, authorities said the death toll had risen to seven. 

In Lower Austria, the country’s worst-affected district, a man's body was found floating in the floods. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer visited the affected area and thanked the Austrian emergency forces for their "impressive" work in the area.

Germany is expecting the River Elbe to rise to 6 meters (19.5 feet) by Wednesday. Just last week, the city of Dresden saw a main bridge collapsing into the Elbe water, with the circumstances still unclear.

The Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society in London, Liz Bentley, told DW that although flooding events are not uncommon in Central and Eastern Europe, the amount of rainfall over such a wide area was.

"I think it's the sheer amount of rain that's fallen and the extent to which the area it covers is, is, well, it's unprecedented," Bentley said.

The meteorologist said there were "some signals" of climate change evident.

Bentley pointed to "record-breaking temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea” that had "fuelled energy from the heat" meaning more moisture was present in the air.

"So typically we've seen a 10% increase in the amount of moisture that the atmosphere can hold because of human induced climate change, which means when we get these rainfall events, the rainfall is so much heavier as we've seen over recent days," Bentley said.

She also pointed out that the extremes are being experienced with either too little rainfall or too much over a particular period meant that "we have to become much better at managing those famine and feast situations where there's too much rain or too little rainfall."

The German government has pledged support to countries hit by the flooding.

"People in our neighboring countries, our partners in Europe and our own people need to know that we are watching the situation very closely and are ready to help," a government spokeswoman said in Berlin.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that Germany's technical relief agency THW, an organization of mostly volunteers that specializes in dealing with disasters at home and abroad, was ready "to provide immediate support when assistance is requested."  

Faeser said that the THW was watching the situation closely along the Elbe and Oder rivers in Germany and was ready to step in if flooding occurred.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday announced millions in aid for those in Poland hit by flooding from Storm Boris.

"At the moment we have ensured a reserve of one billion zloty (€234 million, $260 million) for places and people affected by the flood," Tusk told reporters. 

Tusk called an emergency Cabinet meeting for Monday. After the meeting, he declared a state of natural disaster in the flooded areas to facilitate evacuation and rescue operations, as well as expedite financial support for the victims.

Officials in Poland now say at least five people have died in the southwest of the country amid the flooding.

Firefighters said on Monday they had found the body of a surgeon returning from hospital in the town of Nysa, after the bodies of two women and two men were found separately in the towns of Bielsko-Biala and Ladek-Zdroj and in two villages earlier in the day.

The reports come as experts warn of flood threats in Opole, where the Oder River has reached high levels, and in the larger city of Wroclaw.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called an emergency government meeting to consider special measures to speed up financial and other support to flooding victims.
 

Following the severe flooding upstream on the Danube, which flows through both Slovakia's capital, Bratislava, and the Hungarian capital of Budapest, authorities in both countries are taking measures to limit any damage.

Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter said the government in Budapest was focused on keeping the Danube and its tributaries within their banks.

Pinter said up to 12,000 soldiers were on standby to help if needed.

On Friday, the city's mayor said the river was expected to peak at around 8 meters (26 feet) later this week.

Some quays in the city were to be closed on Monday.

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony warned Budapest residents of the largest floods in a decade, expected to hit later this week. He cited forecasts predicting that the Danube River water would breach the capital's lower quays by Tuesday morning.

Some 1 million sandbags would be deployed to protect various parts of the city, Karacsony said, urging residents to take extra care when near the river.

Slovakia has also declared a state of emergency in its capital, Bratislava, since Saturday.

Austrian police have reported the deaths of two more people in the flood-struck state of Lower Austria.

They said a 70-year-old man and an 80-year-old man died in their respective homes.

On Sunday, a firefighter was reported to have died after slipping on the stairs while pumping out a cellar in the state of Lower Austria, which surrounds the capital, Vienna.
 

Several factories and stores across Central Europe have been forced to shut down production or sales on Monday owing to the widespread flooding.

In the northeastern Czech city of Ostrava, the BorsodChem chemical plant has been one of those to shut, a spokesperson for the company said, according to the Reuters news agency.

One of the largest producers of foundry coke in Europe, OKK Koksovny, has stopped chemicals production but was continuing to keep coking batteries at minimum levels, spokesman Jindrich Vanek told Reuters.

"There is water that has started rising and there must be a breach of the flood barriers," he said. "We are without electricity and we are heating our batteries with coking gas, keeping them at technological minimum."

Veolia Energie also shut its Trebovice electricity and heating plant, the company said
in a statement.

"At the moment, the supply of heat and hot water in Ostrava is interrupted," the company said. "The key technologies remained undamaged and therefore if the situation develops favorably we estimate the restoration of supplies in a few
days."

Polish retailer Zabka meanwhile said some 80 of its outlets were currently closed, mainly in the area around the southwest town of Klodzko, according to an email sent to Reuters.

More heavy downpours are expected in Austria on Monday after a weekend of flooding.

Up to 60 liters of rain are forecast in the hard-hit state of Lower Austria by Tuesday, a state official said.

"It is not over, it remains critical, it remains dramatic," Lower Austria Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner said.

Even more severe rainstorms have been forecast for other parts of the country, according to public broadcaster ORF.

Although water levels have receded in the capital, Vienna, which is surrounded by Lower Austria, the city is suffering great disruption to public transport, including on underground lines. 

Train connections from the south and west to Vienna are also out of operation. 

At least one person is so far confirmed to have died amid severe flooding in the Czech Republic.

Czech Police President Martin Vondrasek told public radio that the victim drowned in the Krasova river in the Moravian-Silesian region.

Authorities have also reported several other people missing, including three thought to have been swept away in a car near the town of Jesenik.

Others are believed to have fallen into rivers or other bodies of water.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala has described the situation as a once-in-a-century flood.

Parts of Romania still remain under flood alerts despite slackening rainfall.

The eastern regions of Galati, Vaslui and Iasi have been particularly affected by flooding, with some 6,000 farmhouses inundated, forcing the evacuation of around 300 people.  

At least six people have died in the flooding, most of them elderly, including two women aged 96 and 86.

The rising waters have mostly hit remote villages, where some had to climb onto roofs to prevent being swept away.

Authorities in Lower Austria have declared the entire northeastern state a disaster zone, with more than 1,000 houses evacuated and dams beginning to burst.

"We are experiencing difficult and dramatic hours in Lower Austria. For many people in Lower Austria these will probably be the most difficult hours of their lives," said Johanna Mikl-Leitner, the governor of the state.

Experts say that there is a particularly dangerous situation on the Kamp River, a tributary of the Danube.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said 2,400 soldiers were ready to help with rescue and relief work across the country, with 1,000 of them deploying to Lower Austria, which surrounds the capital, Vienna.

One firefighter is reported to have died in the state on Sunday while pumping out a flooded basement in the town of Tulln on the Danube. 

Poland has also experienced extensive flooding, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk describing the situation around the town of Klodzko in the southwestern region of Lower Silesia as "dramatic."

There, in a valley in the Sudetes mountains near the border with the Czech Republic, helicopters were used to rescue people from rooftops.

Tusk called for an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday.

The mayor of the southwestern town of Glucholazy, which is situated in the valley of the Biala River, appealed to residents to move to safety, saying, "We are drowning."

A bridge in the town collapsed under the pressure of the rising waters, as streets and houses were flooded.

Jelenia Gora, also in Lower Silesia, has also seen its downtown streets flooded after an embankment burst on the Bobr River.  

Residents there have been warned of possible evacuations amid potential further flooding.

Thousands of people have been asked to leave their homes in the northeast of the Czech Republic following heavy rainfall in recent days.

As many as 10,000 people out of a population of around 56,000 in the city of Opava have been asked to move to safety .

"There's no reason to wait," Mayor Toma·Navratil told Czech public radio, saying that things were worse than during the inundation known as the "flood of the century" in 1997.

Further evacuations have taken place in Krnov, which was almost completely flooded, as well as Cesky Tesin, Ostrava and Bohumin. 

Raging waters in towns and villages in the Jeseniky mountains, including the local center of Jesenik, have also forced people out of their homes, with the military sometimes employing helicopters to take residents to safety.

On Monday, the small town of Litovel, nearly 200 km (124 miles) east of the capital,
Prague, also had several streets submerged, according to the CTK news agency. 

The mayor of the town on the Morava river, a Danube tributary, warned on social media that the water level was expected to rise further in the coming hours.  

"We have to focus on saving lives," Prime Minister Petr Fiala told Czech public television on Sunday, warning that the worst "is not behind us yet." His government was set to meet Monday to assess the damage in the country.

Wide regions in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania have been inundated after days of heavy rainfall, while Slovakia and Hungary are possibly also facing flooding in the coming days.

Six people have died in Romania and one each in Austria and Poland as rivers broke their banks, putting streets and houses under water.

Tens of thousands of people have evacuated their homes, with the northeast of the Czech Republic and the northeastern Austrian state of Lower Austria particularly affected.

In the eastern German state of Saxony, authorities are also bracing for flooding, with the level of the Elbe river expected to peak on Tuesday afternoon at 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) in Schöna, near the border to the Czech Republic.

That measurement would trigger the highest alarm level in the area, and the state flood center said dams could overflow or break with catastrophic effect.

The state capital of Dresden, which also lies on the Elbe, is at risk of flooding as well. Authorities there will set up mobile barriers on Monday to protect the historic city center.

Experts say that the Earth's hotter atmosphere as a result of human-caused climate change is making such extreme weather events more likely.

tj/rmt (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)