Central Europe braces for more flooding

JESENIK: The death toll from the worst flooding central Europe has seen in at least two decades rose on Monday, as authorities in some areas counted the cost of the trail of destruction left by the deluge while others prepared for the crisis to reach them.

Border areas between the Czech Republic and Poland were hit hard over the weekend as heavy rain that has fallen since last week and surging water levels collapsed some bridges, forced evacuations and damaged cars and houses. At least 15 people have died in flooding from Austria to Romania.

Poland's government announced a state of natural disaster in affected areas and said that it had set aside $260 million to help victims. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he was in touch with the leaders of other affected countries and that they would ask the European Union for financial aid.

Michal Piszko, mayor of the Polish town of Klodzko along the Czech border, said waters had receded there but help was needed. "We need bottled water and dry provisions... half of the city has no electricity," he told Polish radio.

Television footage showed streets in Klodzko strewn with debris and mud. In the Polish town of Nysa a hospital was evacuated, with patients including pregnant women and elderly people taken away in rafts.

In Jesenik, a Czech town across the border that was inundated on Sunday, a clean-up was starting after waters receded to show damaged cars and debris on the streets.

"There were two metres of water that ran through the street... There are many, many destroyed cars," said resident Zdenek Kuzilek. "Telephones are not working, there is no water, no electricity."

In eastern Romania, where villages and towns were submerged over the weekend, Emil Dragomir, mayor of Slobozia Conachi, told Romanian television the flooding had a devastating impact.

Flooded parts of the northeastern Czech city of Ostrava forced the closures of a power plant supplying heat and hot water to the city as well as two chemical plants. — Reuters