Sept. 16 (UPI) — More than a dozen people are dead after severe and historic flooding in parts of Europe over the weekend overtook several towns with some places now seeing water levels recede but with more rain expected to fall over the next few days.
Over the weekend, eight new deaths were reported in Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Austria bringing the total number of reported dead to at least 15.
Thousands of Europeans were evacuated from their homes after Storm Boris dumped approximately a month’s worth of rain in central Europe in 24 hours.
In Austria, a firefighter was killed during a flood rescue operation and two elderly people, aged 70 and 80, died — one while reportedly attempting to pump out water from his apartment in the town of Höbersdorf.
A person drowned in a stream in the northeastern town of Bruntal in Czech Republic — which saw the highest levels of flood at nearly 9 inches in some places or five times the average monthly rainfall — where seven other people are reportedly still missing.
On Monday, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared a “state of natural disaster” for 30 days.
Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said that within the past 24 hours the army evacuated more than 2,600 people from regions impacted by the flood.
At least four people are known to have died in Poland although the precise cause of death in one case was still not determined, according to the Polish Interior Ministry.
On Monday morning, an appeal for citizens to evacuate the southwest Polish town of Paczków was given by its mayor as water began to overflow from a nearby reservoir.
In Poland, roads have been severely damaged and travel impeded due to flooding and train travel temporarily suspended. Michal Piszko, the mayor of Klodzko city, told Polish media water had receded and the indications were the worst was now over.
The slow-moving low-pressure system meteorologists named Storm Boris inundated parts of central and eastern Europe in Austria, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia over the weekend. Boris is moving south into Italy where the Emilia-Romagna region could see more than 3 inches of rain.
The Austrian town of St. Polten saw more rain in four days than the wettest autumn on record in 1950. In Slovakia, the Danube River caused flooding in the Old Town area of the nation’s capital, Bratislava, where local media reports said water levels exceeded 30 feet and were expected to rise further.
Meanwhile, more rain is expected to pour on Europe through Monday and Tuesday in Austria, the Czech Republic and southeast Germany where forecasters say another 3 inches could fall, with weather expected to clear up sometime mid-week.
Government leaders from all the affected European nations issued updates over the last few days.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on social media that he has postponed all his international obligations “due to the extreme weather conditions and the ongoing floods” in the former Austro-Hungarian state.
In Austria, Chancellor Karl Nehammer said the Austrian armed forces have been deployed to offer assistance to the storm-hit regions of its federal states while the country’s Climate Ministry confirmed more than $333 million would be made available in recovery funds.
Poland indicated its intent to apply for relief funds via the European Union. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said nearly $260 million would be for flood victims.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, according to World Health Organization, and scientists say global heating caused by different factors due to climate change has been fueling extreme weather events.
For every 1 degree Celsius rise in the global average temperature, the atmosphere is able to hold about 7% more moisture.
Initially, officials in the Czech Republic had issued mandatory evacuation orders. And Romanian authorities were forced to create displacement camps and initiated rescue operations to help people reach safety while awaiting Boris’ eventual passage.
All federal states in Austria had been affected by the rainfall and experienced rapidly deteriorating conditions particularly in the northeastern state of Lower Austria, the Chancellor previously confirmed.
Eastern and southern states in Germany were bracing for potential flooding, particularly in east-central Saxony bordering Poland and nearby Austria which had been dealing with rising water levels in several rivers.
On Monday it was revealed that flooding in submerged eastern Romanian communities had a devastating impact, according to a local mayor.
“If you were here, you would cry instantly, because people are desperate, their whole lives’ work is gone, there were people who were left with just the clothes they had on,” Emil Dragomir, mayor of Slobozia Conachi, told the BBC.
Source Agencies
