Earth Watch Report - Flooding
Flooded streeets in Dresden's Gohlis district
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The old town is flooded by the river Elbe in Meissen, eastern Germany
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Residents transport sand bags to build a flood protection in a street flooded by the river Elbe in Dresden, eastern Germany
Getty Images
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| Updated: |
Tuesday, 04 June, 2013 at 04:09 UTC |
| Description |
| Czech officials have said the waters of the Vltava river could reach critical levels in the capital city Prague as torrential rain continued to cause chaos and claim lives across central Europe. At least eight people have died and at least two are missing after heavy rain caused landslides and swelled river waters to dangerously high levels in three countries. Czech officials said the waters of the Vltava river could reach critical levels in Prague and that special metal walls were being erected to prevent flooding. Interim Mayor Tomas Hudecek said they were shutting down eight stations of the capital's subway network and urging people not to travel to the city. Anticipating traffic problems, the mayor said all nursery, elementary and high schools in the Czech capital will be closed today. In the nearby town of Trebenice where a woman was found dead in the rubble after a summer cottage collapsed due to the raging water, authorities discovered the dead body of a man, Czech public television reported. Separately, at least three other people were reportedly missing. |
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| Updated: |
Tuesday, 04 June, 2013 at 04:43 UTC |
| Description |
| The government of Czech Republic declared a state of emergency across much of the country on Monday. In Prague, the fire brigade erected flood barriers to try to protect the Old Town from the swollen Vltava River, which flows through the Czech capital. Meteorologists said the flooding in Prague and other areas of the country probably had not yet reached their peak. Heavy rainfall has also caused heavy flooding in low-lying regions of Austria - as well as landslides on some mountains. The number of deaths attributed to the flooding rose to two on Monday after the body of a man missing since Saturday evening was recovered. There has been at least one flood-related death in Germany and six in the Czech Republic since the floods hit. The European Commission noted that help would be available to the victims of the current flooding through the European Solidarity Fund, which it set up after the last major floods to hit the region in 2002. "I want to assure those affected and the politicians, too, that the European family will lend support to its member states and help where it's needed the most," said Johannes Hahn, a spokesperson for EU Regional Policy Commissioner. |
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| Updated: |
Tuesday, 04 June, 2013 at 08:32 UTC |
| Description |
| On Tuesday, at least e10 pople wre confirmeed dead in Czech Republic. About nine others are reportedly missing. Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas declared a state of emergency on June 2 and promised relief aid. The Czech Republic capital, Prague, is preparing for more flooding as the Vltava river is continuing to rise. |
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| Updated: |
Thursday, 06 June, 2013 at 14:04 UTC |
| Description |
| In the Czech Republic, firefighters said some 700 Czech villages, towns and cities have been hit by flooding in the last few days and some 20,500 people had to be evacuated. In the country's north, the water in the Elbe reached its highest level overnight and began to recede Thursday. |
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The Telegraph
Aerial footage shows extent of flooding across Europe
Flooding in the German city of Dresden and Czech capital Prague is een from the air, as the death toll due to the floods in Europe rises to at least 10.
9:28PM BST 04 Jun 2013
Aerial footage shows extent of flooding across Europe - Prague V01:19
Another nine people have been reported missing in the floods that have also swept through Austria and Switzerland.
Peak floodwaters coursing out of the Czech Republic were expected to hit Dresden, capital of the German province of Saxony, along the Elbe in three to four days.
Many areas of Dresden were already badly flooded on Tuesday, including some parts of the historic city centre.
Cities and towns in the German states of Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia and Brandenburg were also hit with flooding.
Seven of those killed in the floods were in the Czech Republic, where a man was found dead in the water in eastern Bohemia on Tuesday.
Woman wakeboards along street in flood-hit Czech Republic
Video of a woman wakeboarding through the flooded streets of a Czech town has
provided a rare moment of levity for the Czech Republic as it continues to
battle the worst flooding in over decade.
The video, which has become an internet hit in the
Czech
Republic, shows the 26-year old, known only as Mila, being towed by
a car and skimming along the water-filled streets of the town of Pisek in
southern Bohemia.
“We were going round the town taking pictures and then we saw children
splashing in the water and that gave us the idea,” Radek, the man who made
the video, told the Czech press. “We thought we could go boarding.”
The wakeboarding video came as vast flood waters caused by days of torrential
rain continued to leave a trail of death and destruction across the Czech
Republic, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
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Residents transport sand bags to build a flood protection in a
street flooded by the river Elbe in Dresden, eastern Germany
Getty Images
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| Description |
| The surging Elbe River crested Thursday in the eastern German city of Dresden, sparing the historic city center but engulfing wide areas of the Saxony capital. Residents and emergency crews had worked through the night to fight the floods in Dresden. The German military and the national disaster team sent more support in a frantic effort to sandbag levees and riverbanks as floodwaters that have claimed 16 lives since last week surged north. "Everybody's afraid but the people are simply fantastic and sticking together," said Dresden resident Silvia Fuhrmann, who had brought food and drinks to those building sandbag barriers. The Elbe hit 8.76 meters (28 feet, 9 inches) around midday - well above its regular level of two meters (6 1/2 feet). Still, that was not high enough to damage city's famous opera, cathedral and other buildings in its historic city center, which was devastated in a flood in 2002. Germany has 60,000 local emergency personnel and aid workers, as well as 25,000 federal disaster responders and 16,000 soldiers now fighting the floods. Farther downstream, the town of Lauenburg - just southwest of Hamburg - evacuated 150 houses along the Elbe, n-tv news reported, as the floodwaters roared toward the North Sea. |
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