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Central Europe Swept By Fatal 100 Year Floods PRAGUE, Czech Republic, August 14, 2002 (ENS) - The government of the Czech Republic has called for international assistance to combat deadly flooding that has claimed the lives of nine people, including two firemen, and forced more than 200,000 others from their homes. The Vltava River burst its banks Tuesday, sending waters roiling through the historic center of Prague. Water engulfed the city, flooding architectural treasures hundreds of years old. Imminently threatened are such wonders of historic architecture as the Charles Bridge, the Old Town Square, the National Theater and Kampa Island.
Flood waters cover Prague's Kampa Island (Photos courtesy Prague.TV)Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla has declared a state of emergency in Prague and the regions of South Bohemia, Central Bohemia, Plzen, Karlovy Vary and Usti nad Labem, an area which covers almost half the country.Today, President Vaclav Havel cut short his vacation in Portugal and returned to Prague to help his country address the emergency. Some 4,000 policemen, 2,000 firefighters, 7,000 volunteers and 2,000 soldiers have been mobilized to tackle the floods. Many of the affected territories have been left without electricity and gas. Road and rail transportation has been dramatically affected. In Prague, volunteers, the Army and police are filling and placing sandbags in an effort to protect centuries old residences on Kampa Island and elsewhere near the disappearing banks of the river. Books and valuable documents were relocated from the basement of the Waldstejn Palace, seat of the Czech Senate, from the National Library, as well as from Charles University. About 400 threatened animals in Prague's flooded Trojo Zoo were saved yesterday by rescue workers who used cranes to hoist them to higher ground. Workers were able to move two rhinoceros with cranes and four gorillas which were sedated. But zookeepers had to destroy a 35 year old Indian elephant and a hippopotamus after they were stranded in a flooded part of the zoo. Adored by generations of Prague children, Kadir the elephant appeared in several Czech films. Due to rising flood waters and the subsequent electricity cuts, Prague.tv is unable to access its headquarters.
Hastily erected flood wall protects a Prague street. (Photo courtesy Prague TV)Tamara Klablenova, head of the international department of the Czech Red Cross, said the threat remains. "People expect the worst will still come. We must wait for the flood wave to pass through the capital," she said.Also flooded and severely damaged are three southern bohemian towns - Ceske Budejovice, Cesky Krumlov on the Vltava River, a Renaissance jewel and the second most favorite tourist location in the country, and the town of Strakonice on the Otava River. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs received an official request for international assistance from the Czech Ministry of Interior late yesterday evening for portable dryers to be used in drying damp houses, floating pumps with internal combustion engines, and electric submersible pumps. Torrential rains have soaked the European continent for 10 days. The rainstorms are blamed in the deaths of 88 people across the continent. Most of the flood fatalities were in Russia, where at least 58 people drowned last week, mostly Russian tourists vacationing on the Black Sea at the resort area of Krasnodar Krai. On August 8 tidal waves over two metres (6.5 feet) high swept over Novorossiisk and Krymsk killing at least 58 people and inundating 15 nearby settlements. An estimated 300 people are missing. Rescuers are most concerned about visitors who had been camping in tents on the seashore and who were not registered in any hotel or guest house, making it difficult to ascertain the number of people dead or missing. In Austria, where at least seven people have died, the Danube River has burst its banks in Vienna. Firefighters and Red Cross volunteers using sandbags worked into the night to hold back parts of the Danube whose waters flooded Vienna's port and some low lying streets. Austria's Salzach River has overflowed, submerging more than 1,000 buildings in Salzburg. About 8,000 soldiers battled floods in Upper Austria and along the Danube on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said.
Flooded Austria (Photo courtesy IFRC)Some 2,000 rescue and relief workers have been deployed by the Austrian Red Cross over the past few days, as rain continues in almost all of Austria's provinces, bringing increasing problems particularly to the Salzburg, Styria, Upper and Lower Austria regions. Villages have been flooded, homes and bridges washed away, railway tracks submerged, and property destroyed, the Red Cross reports.In Germany, a state of emergency has been declared in Bavaria, and the cities of Munich and Dresden are under water. Numerous dams are in danger of breaking in towns along the Danube River near Passau, a city on the Austrian border which is partly under water. In Romania, at least seven people died in recent days, and some 15,000 Romanians are reportedly affected, mainly in rural areas. Roads, railways, water and electricity supplies have been damaged. Romanian Red Cross president, Professor Nicolae Nicoara, said this morning, "Tragically, most of the people affected have lost their livelihoods, their means of existence. This is a tragedy that will not end with the retreat of the flood waters. When the emergency passes we will have to assess how we can help people further in the difficult time immediately ahead." Heavy rains and floods have not spared Bulgaria or Slovakia. In some districts of Bulgaria the entire year's harvests have been lost. The Slovak Red Cross reports 30,000 people left without shelter and in great need in the central part of the country. |
