WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Four new deaths were reported Monday in Poland, three in the Czech Republic and one in Romania as unusually heavy rains battered Central Europe and caused deadly flooding in the region.
Floods have inundated parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, and a low pressure system moving across the region is expected to bring record rainfall over the next few days, affecting Slovakia and Hungary later in the week. Sixteen people have been reported dead so far: seven in Romania, five in Poland, three in the Czech Republic and one in Austria.
In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an emergency meeting and later declared a state of disaster for flood-hit areas, a government measure to facilitate evacuations and rescues. He also said the government would immediately provide 1 billion zloty ($260 million) to victims.
Floods in Poland caused dams and dikes to burst, leaving roads covered in piles of rubble and mud as the waters receded, forcing a hospital in the southwestern Polish city of Nysa to evacuate about 40 patients.
Schools and offices in affected areas were closed on Monday and drinking water and food were delivered by trucks. Many Polish cities, including Warsaw, have appealed for food donations for flood victims.
Experts warned that the rising Oder river poses a flood threat to Opole, a city of about 130,000 people, and Wroclaw, a city of 640,000 that was hit by devastating floods in 1997.
Firefighters in southwest Poland said the flood victims included a surgeon who was found dead in Nysa on Monday morning after returning from work at a hospital. The bodies of two women and two men have been found in other parts of the region.
Police in the Czech Republic said a woman and two men drowned in the northeast, which has been hit by record rains since Thursday. The woman was found in water in the town of Krasov and the men were found dead in another part of the town of Krnov, which was almost completely submerged on Sunday, after the waters receded.
Romanian authorities announced one more death on Monday in the eastern county of Galati, bringing the total number of deaths in the county to seven.
One death has already been reported in Austria.
Authorities in the Czech Republic have declared a state of emergency in two regions in the northeast, including the Jeseniki Mountains near the Polish border.
Many towns and cities in the northeast were submerged and thousands evacuated. Military helicopters joined rescuers in boats to ferry people to safety. Water receded from mountainous areas on Monday but homes and bridges were destroyed and roads damaged.
The situation is expected to improve in most parts of the country by late Monday.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala visited the town of Jesenik, one of the hardest hit areas.
“The worst is over and now we have to deal with all the damage,” Fiala said after the visit.
In Hungary, the mayor of Budapest warned residents that the worst floods in a decade were expected to hit the capital later this week, with waters from the Danube River set to breach the city's downstream banks by Tuesday morning.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has cancelled planned events abroad, including a speech to a European Parliament plenary session on Wednesday that is expected to spark a heated debate over his actions since Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the European Union in July.
“Until we reach the peak and get through the worst of it, I obviously have no intention of leaving the country and will stay here,” he said.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony posted on Facebook that the city would use one million sandbags to strengthen flood protection measures, and urged residents near the river to be especially careful.
