By David W Cerny and Marek Strzelecki
LIPOVA LAZNE, Czech Republic (Reuters) – One person drowned in southwestern Poland and thousands were evacuated from the Czech Republic border after heavy rains continued to pound central Europe on Sunday, causing flooding in many parts of the region.
A firefighter who faced floods in Lower Austria was also killed, Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler said on Sunday on social media X when authorities declared the province around Vienna a disaster zone.
Rivers were overflowing from Poland to Romania, where four people were found dead on Saturday, after days of heavy rain in a low-pressure area called Boris.
Parts of the Czech Republic and Poland experienced the worst floods in almost three decades and a bridge collapsed in the historic Polish town of Glucholazy near the Czech border.
In the Czech Republic, a quarter of a million homes were without electricity due to strong winds and rain. Czechoslovakian police said they are looking for three people who were in a car that fell into the Staric River near Lipova Lazne, 235 kilometers east of Prague on Saturday.
In Poland, one person died in the Klodzko district, which Prime Minister Donald Tusk said was the most affected area in the country and where 1,600 people were evacuated.
“The situation is very good,” Tusk told reporters on Sunday after a meeting in the town of Klodzko, which was partly underwater as the local river rose to 665 cm on Sunday morning, above the 240 alarm.
That surpassed the record set by the worst floods in 1997, which destroyed a city and claimed 56 lives in Poland.
Officials in Glucholazy in Poland's Nysa region ordered people to evacuate on Sunday morning as the local river began to burst its banks and the town was left without electricity. Firefighters and the military have been working to protect the city's infrastructure since Saturday but failed to stop the bridge from collapsing.
Local police have announced plans for people trapped in flooded houses in Nysa district to be rescued by helicopter.
Residents across the Czech border also said the situation was worse than the floods seen before.
“What you see here is worse than in 1997, I don't know what will happen because my house is under water, I don't know if I will return to it,” said Pavel Bily, a resident of Lipova. Lazne.
Firefighters in the region said they had evacuated 1,900 people since Sunday morning, and many roads were impassable.
In the worst-hit areas, more than 100 mm of rain fell overnight and almost 450 mm since Wednesday evening, the Czech Meteorological Agency said.
More rain is expected on Sunday and Monday.
In Budapest, officials raised forecasts that the Danube will rise in the second half of this week, to more than 8.5 meters, approaching the 8.91 meters seen in 2013, as rain continues in Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.
“According to the forecasts, one of the biggest floods in recent years is approaching Budapest but we are ready to face it,” said Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony.
In Romania, authorities said the rain was less severe than on Saturday, when floods killed four and damaged 5,000 homes. Cities and towns in seven regions of eastern Romania were affected, and the country's emergency services said they were still searching for two missing people.
