Floods cause havoc in Central Europe
GERMANY: Floods caused by torrential rain left 14 people dead and
several others missing in central Europe over the weekend, with
residents rescued from rising waters in boats, buses and helicopters.
While rivers burst their banks and dykes were breached in Poland,
Germany the Czech Republic and Lithuania, in western Europe about 500
firefighters tackled wildfires in Portugal.
Three people drowned in southwestern Poland, near the border with
Germany and the Czech Republic, Polish Interior Minister Jerzy Miller
told reporters on Sunday.
A woman drowned in the town of Bogatynia, which was heavily damaged
by a river that burst its banks on Saturday, forcing 700 people to leave
their homes, Polish firefighters’ spokesman Pawel Fratczak told AFP.
Another woman drowned in the same region, where a 55-year-old fireman
was also swept away when a dyke burst, he added.
A burst dam sent a flood wave down the Neisse River separating
Germany from Poland, putting parts of the twin cities of
Zgorzelec-Goerlitz on the German-Polish border underwater.
“The flood wave hit the town in a few hours. We couldn’t do anything
to get ready for that,” Goerlitz mayor Michael Wieler told Germany’s N24
TV channel, saying that the river rose by several metres in the space of
a few hours.
The Neisse reached a height of 7.07 metres in Goerlitz — more than
three times its normal level and the highest since record-keeping began
in 1912.
German police said nearly 1,500 people including the residents of two
homes for elderly people had been evacuated in the same region in boats,
buses and helicopters.
Some 1,700 rescue workers fanned out across the region to help those
stranded.
“The elderly in particular are in a state and worrying about their
homes and animals,” said Christoph Wiesener of the Goerlitz fire
brigade. Goerlitz, AFP
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