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A resident hugs her relative after being evacuated from her flooded house in Jesenik, Czech Republic. [Petr David Josek/AP Photo]Published On 16 Sep 202416 Sep 2024
The death toll in Central and Eastern Europe has risen as Storm Boris continued to pummel the region, causing massive floods.
One person drowned in southwestern Poland on Sunday, a firefighter taking part in rescue efforts was killed in Austria and two more people were killed in Romania as strong winds and heavy rains were forecast to persist for a fourth day on Monday. Floods killed four people in Romania on Saturday.
Thousands of people were evacuated on Sunday from their homes in the Czech Republic following days of torrential rain that caused rivers to burst their banks in several parts of the region.
A low-pressure system named Boris has triggered downpours from Austria to Romania, leading to some of the worst flooding in nearly three decades in hard-hit areas in the Czech Republic and Poland.
More rain and strong winds are forecast until at least Monday, though the rain eased on Sunday in Romania, which bore the brunt of flooding a day earlier.
Thousands of homes were damaged over the weekend, bridges swept away and at least 250,000 households – mainly in the Czech Republic – were affected by power cuts.
In Lower Austria, the province surrounding Vienna where government officials said the firefighter had died, authorities declared the area a disaster zone and warned against non-essential travel.
A bridge collapsed in the historic Polish town of Glucholazy near the Czech border and local officials ordered evacuations early on Sunday. Local media said another bridge collapsed in the mountain town of Stronie Slaskie, where a dam burst, according to the Polish weather service.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who visited nearby flooded areas, said on the X platform the government would announce a state of disaster and seek European Union aid.
In the neighbouring Czech Republic, police said they were searching for three people who were in a car that plunged into the river Staric on Saturday near Lipova-lazne, a village about 235km (146 miles) east of the capital, Prague. Rainfall in the area has reached about 500mm (19.7 inches) since Wednesday.
In the Hungarian capital, Budapest, officials raised forecasts for the river Danube to rise in the second half of this week to more than 8.5 metres (27.9 feet), nearing a record of 8.91 metres (29.2 feet) in 2013.
As the rain eased in Romania, workers sought to restore power supplies to some 11,000 homes and cleanup efforts started as residents surveyed the damage.