For once, the UK is sitting pretty in terms of the weather; who’d have thought it? However, as we’re enjoying some long anticipated sunshine and distinctly balmy temperatures, parts of central and northern Europe including Germany, Saxony, Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland have been inundated with severe floods after days of heavy rainfall and subsequent swollen rivers.
The floods have caused widespread destruction and tens of thousands of people have had to evacuate their homes in the worst hit areas. Emergency operations have been under way to deal with record levels of flooding, including in Grimma in Saxony and Passau in Germany.
The floods experienced in the Czech Republic have been declared as the worst in a decade. Armies of volunteers have piled up sandbags in order to prevent the Vltava River from turning the Czech Republic’s historical capital city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, Prague, into a mini Venice, while tigers at Prague Zoo have been sedated and removed from their enclosure at risk of flooding.
Thousands of people living in low-lying areas in Austria and the Czech Republic have had to be evacuated from their homes, and several factories have been closed. Germany’s Danube River experienced some of the worst flooding; with the bank-bursting river affecting the entire Austrian stretch of the Danube, and in particular the area between Dresna and Pirna in Germany. The Bavarian city of Passau saw its worst flooding since 1501 with the city’s old town deluged by three rivers; causing water levels to rise to the highest they’ve been in 70 years.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, having toured flooded regions in Germany and witnessed the severity of the flooding firsthand, has already pledged at least €50m to fund urgent federal help and has promised further emergency aid.
The River Elbe has peaked in Dresden flooding wide areas, but the historic centre has escaped the deluge. Meanwhile, floodwaters in the Czech Republic, which at their worst covered half the country, are now receding. Many German cities continue to battle severe floods, with hordes of volunteers working tirelessly to shore up river defences.
To date, the flooding has caused the loss of 15 lives across central Europe. According to an EU status report; eight people have died in the Czech Republic, four in Austria and three in Germany.
