Rush to shore up flood defences amid deaths and evacuations

Emergency companies are shoring up flood defences in Central and Jap Europe after torrential rainfall swelled rivers and broken hundreds of houses.

One individual has died from drowning in Poland, prime minister Donald Tusk confirmed on Sunday.

Storm Boris additionally proved lethal in Romania on Saturday, the place 4 folks had been killed throughout floods within the south-eastern area of Galati.

Within the Czech Republic, flooding has led to evacuations and 51,000 households within the nation’s northern areas have been hit by energy outages, Czech energy firm CEZ says. Flood boundaries have gone up within the capital Prague.

“We’re once more going through the consequences of local weather change, that are more and more current on the European continent, with dramatic penalties,” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis mentioned on Saturday.

Excessive precipitation is turning into extra doubtless in Europe, as throughout a lot of the world, resulting from local weather change.

A hotter ambiance can maintain extra moisture, which might result in heavier rainfall.

The mayor of Slobozia Conachi, a village in Romania’s Galati area, mentioned 700 houses had been flooded.

“This can be a disaster of epic proportions,” Emil Dragomir mentioned.

In Glucholazy, in Poland’s southwestern Opole area, the mayor of the city mentioned the native river had overflowed its banks and was now flooding the city. He appealed to residents to evacuate to larger floor on Sunday.

Glucholazy resident Zofia Owsiaka, mentioned everybody within the city was “scared” and there appeared to be “no hope of the rain stopping”.

In Krakow, Poland’s second largest metropolis, residents have been provided sandbags for flood safety.

Talking from the city of Klodzko, one of many worst affected areas in Decrease Silesia close to the Czech border, Mr Tusk mentioned 1600 folks within the district had been evacuated.

He urged different residents to cooperate with the emergency companies when requested to evacuate their houses.

Within the space, 17,000 individuals are with out energy, he mentioned. In some areas, the cellular phone sign shouldn’t be working and the web is down, so he mentioned he had taken the choice to make use of Starlink satellites.

He mentioned the primary Blackhawk helicopter had been despatched to the area’s capital, Wroclaw, the place hundreds of residents had to make use of the staircases of high-rise blocks as a result of lifts had been shut as a flood security precaution, native media reported.

Within the Czech Republic, a dam burst within the nation’s South Bohemia area on Saturday. Atmosphere Minister Petr Hladik urged these within the worst-hit areas to organize to depart their houses.

Hladik mentioned the bottom was saturated and rainwater was staying on the floor – growing the chance of flash floods. Rain within the Czech Republic is predicted till Tuesday, the minister mentioned.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala mentioned the nation braced for “a troublesome weekend”. Authorities have put up protecting partitions of sandbags and steel boundaries.

Soccer matches within the nation’s high two leagues scheduled for this weekend had been cancelled.