WARSAW: One person drowned in southwestern Poland, a rescue worker was killed in Austria and thousands were evacuated in the Czech Republic after heavy rain hit central Europe on Sunday, causing flooding in several parts of the region. A firefighter battling floods in Lower Austria also died, Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler said on social media platform X on Sunday, as authorities declared the province around Vienna a disaster area. A bridge collapsed in the historic Polish town of Glucholazy near the Czech border. Local media reported that a house was swept away and a bridge collapsed in the mountain town of Stronie Slaskie, where a local dam burst, according to the Polish Meteorological Institute. Rivers overflowed from Poland into Romania after days of torrential rain in a low-pressure system called Boris, where four people were found dead on Saturday. Parts of the Czech Republic and Poland faced the worst flooding in nearly three decades as cities evacuated thousands of people. A quarter of a million Czech households were without electricity. Police in the Czech Republic announced that they are looking for three people who were in a car that fell into the Staríč River near Lipová-lázní on Saturday, a village about 235 km east of Prague, which was one of the hardest-hit neighboring towns. from Jeseník. Reuters footage showed floodwaters gushing through both towns, damaging some homes and carrying debris. “We don’t know what will happen next,” said Jeseník resident Mirek Buriánek. “The internet network is down, the phones are down… We are waiting for someone to show up (to help).” Police and firemen used a helicopter to evacuate people stranded in the district. In total, over 10,000 people were evacuated in the country, the chief of the fire department told Czech Television. WORSE THAN BEFORE In Poland, one person died in Kladsko district, which Prime Minister Donald Tusk described as the worst affected region of the country. “The situation is very dramatic,” Tusk told reporters Sunday morning after a meeting in the town of Kladsko, which was partially underwater as the local river rose more than 6 meters. This broke the record of severe flooding in 1997, which partially damaged the city and claimed 56 lives in Poland. Officials in Glucholazy ordered an evacuation Sunday morning, although efforts to protect the city’s infrastructure failed to prevent the bridge from collapsing. Police deployed helicopters to rescue people trapped in flooded homes. More rain is expected in Central Europe. In the Hungarian capital Budapest, officials predicted the Danube would rise above 8.5 meters in the second half of this week, approaching the record 8.91 meters recorded in 2013. “According to the forecast, one of the biggest floods in recent years is coming to Budapest, but we are ready to face it,” said Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony. In Romania, authorities said the rain was less intense than on Saturday, when floods killed four and damaged 5,000 homes.
