Central Europe braces for further flooding as swollen rivers continue to rise
As swollen rivers continued to rise, volunteers and emergency workers in towns and cities across a swathe of central Europe were reinforcing defences against floods that have killed at least 21 people in four countries.
Storm Boris has dumped up to five times the average September rainfall on parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia in four days, submerging entire neighbourhoods and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate. Seven people have died in Romania,
six in Poland, five in Austria and three in the Czech Republic, officials said on Tuesday, with several missing. The rain was easing in some areas but water levels in others were not expected to peak for several days.
The Danube River had peaked in Slovakia, the environment minister, Tomáš Taraba, said, leaving parts of Bratislava’s old town flooded. It was still rising in Hungary, including by about a metre every 24 hours in Budapest. Mobile dams were in place at the historical towns of Visegrád and Szentendre, north of Budapest.
Tram lines and roads alongside the river, as well as the popular Margaret island, have been closed and a million sandbags distributed.
In eastern Germany, authorities were also taking precautions, with mobile flood protection walls set up in some areas to protect Dresden’s old city as the Elbe rose steadily. The river was expected to peak by midweek.
In Poland, the mayor of the historical city of Wrocław, Jacek Sutryk, said on Tuesday buses had been prepared for an evacuation. “Today we will also be further reinforcing embankments in the [Oder] river basin,” he said.
The Oder is expected to peak on Friday, or perhaps sooner, in the city, which is home to 600,000 people.Wrocławzoo, alongside the river, appealed for volunteers to fill sandbags. “We and our animals will be extremely grateful for your help,” it said.
Extreme rainfall is becoming more common and intense because of human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, particularly in Europe, most of Asia, central and eastern North America, and parts of South America, Africa and Australia.
Warmer air can hold more water vapour, while human factors, such as flood defence planning and land use, are also important factors in consequent flooding.
Climate breakdown is also making heatwaves more intense and more likely to happen, increasing the risk of devastating wildfires. As rescue workers