Flooding has killed seven people in Romania, where waters have receded since the weekend, four in Poland, five in Austria, and three in Czechia. Tens of thousands of Czech and Polish households were still without power or fresh water.
Hundreds of people have been rescued across 19 parts of the country, Romanian emergency services said. Source: Getty / Daniel Mihailescu
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk held an emergency meeting on Monday and later declared a disaster in flooded areas, a government measure to facilitate evacuation and rescues.
He announced the government would provide 1 billion zlotys (A$385 million) in immediate payouts to victims.
The fire brigade is evacuating residents from flooded houses in Czechowice Dziedzice, Poland. Source: AAP / Dawid Markysz
Szymon Krzysztan, 16, standing in the town square of Ladek Zdroj, described losses from the floods as “unimaginable”.
“It’s a city like in an apocalypse… It’s a ghost town,” he said.
The Polish government called a special meeting on Monday, after Prime Minister Tusk ordered the government to prepare an ordinance to declare a state of natural disaster over floods in the country. Source: AAP / Dariusz Gdesz
The death toll in Poland rose to four after a surgeon drowned in the south-western town of Nysa. Overnight, volunteers helped rescue workers heave sandbags to build up the broken embankment around Nysa, a city of more than 40,000 people.
Many Polish cities have called for food donations for flood survivors. Source: AAP / Maciej Kulczynski
While rivers in the Czech-Polish border area are starting to recede, other cities have been put on alert.
Schools and health facilities have also shut, its mayor said in a video on Facebook.
Rescuers patrol flooded streets following heavy rain in the town of Ostrava, Czechia. Source: AAP / Martin Divisek
In Ostrava — an industrial city of 290,000 people in northeast Czechia — the BorsodChem chemical plant was shut, a spokesperson for the company said.
More than 12,000 people have been evacuated, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on social media platform X, as he called an extraordinary government session for Monday.
One person drowned on Monday in the Bruntál region of Czechia, police chief Martin Vondrášek told local media. Source: Getty / Gabriel Kuchta
Slovakia’s capital Bratislava and Hungarian capital Budapest are also bracing as the River Danube rises.
Hundreds of sandbags are being used to reinforce a dam in Tahitotfalu, Hungary, as the Danube river threatens to spill its banks. Source: AAP / Denes Erdos
In Austria, local media reported that two men drowned after being trapped by rising flood water in their homes
As levels of rivers and reservoirs fell, officials said they were bracing for a second wave as heavier rain was forecast.
Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, said the situation in his country “continues to worsen.” Lower Austria has been declared a disaster area. Source: Getty / Helmut Fohringer
In a message on X, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sent words of solidarity to those affected by flooding and said the EU would provide support.
With additional reporting by Reuters and the Australian Associated Press.
