Storm Boris brings ‘disaster of epic proportions’ to Europe
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Storm Boris has brought a ‘catastrophe of epic proportions’ to Europe this weekend, after six people including a firefighters on a rescue mission tragically died in floods caused by the torrential rains.
Storm Boris, a slow moving low-pressure system, set off heavy rain on Friday that has carried on over the weekend. It brought a month’s worth of rain in just 24 hours to Poland, Romania, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, along with heavy winds.
A firefighter died during a flood rescue mission in an Austrian province declared a disaster zone, it was announced today. Four people were killed in south eastern Romania yesterday in the worst-affected region, Galati, where 5,000 homes were damaged.
Emil Dragomir, the mayor of Slobozia Conachi, a village in Galati, declared: ‘This is a catastrophe of epic proportions.’
‘The water came into the house, it destroyed the walls, everything,’ Sofia Basalic, 60, a resident of Romania’s village of Pechea, in the hard-hit region of Galati, told AFP.
AUSTRIA: A pedestrian looks at the high level of the Wien river in Hutteldorf, Vienna, during heavy rainfall
SLOVAKIA: Firefighters load onto a boat some food for old people in a retirement home in the flooded town of Stupava
POLAND: The flooded streets in Glucholazy, southern Poland
‘It took the chickens, the rabbits, everything. It took the oven, the washing machine, the refrigerator. I have nothing left,’ she said.
Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis blamed climate change for the ‘dramatic consequences’.
‘We must continue to strengthen our capacity to anticipate extreme weather phenomena,’ he said.
‘Severe floods that have affected a large part of the country have led to loss of lives and significant damage.
‘We are again dealing with the effects of climate chang e, which are increasingly present throughout the European continent, with dramatic consequences on people.’
Hundreds of people have been rescued across 19 parts of the country, emergency services said, releasing a video of flooded homes in a village by the Danube river.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed this morning one person drowned in the Klodzko region where 1,600 people have been evacuated and 17,000 are without power.
ROMANIA: Local residents rescue an elderly man from the rising flood waters in the village of Slobozia Conachi
AUSTRIA: A flooded road following heavy rainfall in Neulengbach, in north east Austria
POLAND: Residents take photos on their mobile phones as water from the Biala river come to the city centre in Glucholazy
POLAND: People with a dog carry their children through a flooded street in Glucholazy
Mr Tusk took the decision to use Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites with the internet and moblie phone signal not working in some locations in the area.
Polish authorities have called in the army to support firefighters.
Meanwhile, a military Blackhawk helicopter was called in and deployed to Klodzko’s capital, Wroclaw, reported the BBC, where thousands of people at a high-rise tower blocks had to use the staircases to escape as the lifts were shut as a safety precaution.
In Glucholazy, Poland’s south western Opole region, people have today been urged to scramble to higher ground after the river burst its banks and began to flood the town.
CZECHIA: People are evacuated as the flood waters continue to rise
POLAND: Firefighters work in a flooded street in Glucholazy
AUSTRIA: A local resident builds flood protection during heavy rainfall in Neulengbach
ROMANIA: An elderly man clings to a washing line as he is rescued from his home in Slobozia Conachi
ROMANIA: A man inspects a flooded house in the Romanian village of Slobozia Conachi
CZECHIA: A woman stands in front of a house in a residential area flooded by the Opava river
SLOVAKIA: Residents load sandbags on flooded streets in Stupava, a town west of Bratislava
POLAND: The Biala river in Glucholazy, southern Poland, is swollen on September 14
ROMANIA: Aerial view of the rising flood waters in the Romanian village of Slobozia Conachi
ROMANIA: A dog makes its way through the rising flood waters in the Romanian village of Slobozia Conachi
ROMANIA: Local residents rescue a dog from the rising flood waters in Slobozia Conachi
AUSTRIA: A pedestrian looks at the high level of the Wien river in Hutteldorf, Vienna
ROMANIA: People walk in the rising flood waters in Slobozia Conachi
CZECHIA: Firefighters drive their truck across a street flooded by the Opava river today
CZECHIA: A boy holding a dog walks besides a street flooded by the Opava river
POLAND: An aerial view of the flooded streets in Glucholazy
Resident Zofia Owsiaka, 65, watched with fear as the fast-flowing waters of the swollen Biala river surged past.
‘Water is the most powerful force of nature. Everyone is scared,’ she said.
While in the country’s second largest city Krakow, sandbags are being offered as a way to protect homes.
In Czechia, 50,000 homes have been left without power in the north with police reporting today that four people are missing.
Three were in a car that was swept into a river in the northeastern town of Lipova-Lazne, and another man was missing after being swept away by floods in the southeast.
A dam in the south of the country burst its banks, flooding towns and villages downstream.
Speaking ahead of the weekend, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said ‘we have to be ready for worst-case scenarios’.
‘A tough weekend is ahead of us,’ he warned.
CZECHIA: An hydraulic excavator in the flooded town of Prelouc
CZECHIA: A man walks past a car through floodwater in a street by the Opava river
POLAND: Water ferociously flows through amid authorities calling in the army to support firefighters
POLAND: In Glucholazy, people have today been urged to scramble to higher ground after the river burst its banks and began to flood the town
POLAND: Residents shelter under umbrellas as they watch the flood waters a Storm Boris continues to batter eastern Europe
ROMANIA: An aerial view of the rising flood waters in Slobozia Conachi
ROMANIA: Local residents watch the rising flood waters in Slobozia Conachi yesterday
POLAND: A firefighter stands next to sand bags piled up against the floods of the Biala river in Glucholazy
CZECHIA: Firefighters and volunteers build a wall of sand bags to stop flood water of the Opava river
POLAND: Local residents make barriers using sandbags to stop water of the Biala river flooding the city centre of Glucholazy
POLAND: A man piles up sand bags at the entrance of a house to protect it against the floods in Glucholazy
POLAND: A car is also submerged by the rising waters in Glucholazy
The flood barriers have been raised in Prague and the embankments have been closed to the public as the storm continues to rage.
Some areas of Austria’s Tyrol region were blanketed by up to three feet of snow – an exceptional situation for mid-September, which saw temperatures of up to 30C last week.
Rail services were suspended in the country’s east early today and several metro lines were shut down in the capital Vienna, where the Wien river was threatening to overflow its banks, according to the APA news agency.
Firefighters have intervened around 150 times in Vienna since Friday to clear roads blocked by storm debris and pump water from cellars, local media reported.
In total, 24 villages in the Lower Austria province have been declared as disaster zones with evacuation orders being made since yesterday afternoon.
Neighbouring Slovakia has declared a state of emergency in the capital, Bratislava.
