Severe flooding continued to kill people on Tuesday as Eastern and Central Europe struggles to cope with Storm Boris.
The death toll from floods in four countries has risen to 20 as deadly downpours lashed Central Europe, forcing the evacuation of thousands of homes.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes across Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, and the death toll rose to 20 – seven in Romania, five each in Poland and Austria, and three in the Czech Republic.
The Polish government declared a natural disaster in southern and southwestern Poland on Monday as the country struggles to cope with floodwaters that have inundated towns and villages and damaged homes and infrastructure.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that some 234 million euros ($260 million) will be allocated under emergency appropriations to help people affected by floods in the south of the country.
Towns in northern Moravia, in the eastern Czech Republic, remain without electricity on Tuesday, Czech Radio reported.
The country’s flood warning level has dropped: as of Tuesday morning, flood warnings were in effect in about 160 localities, 20 fewer than at midnight.
Thousands of volunteers help evacuate people
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said more than 5,500 professional and volunteer firefighters, police, rescue workers and volunteers have helped evacuate more than 13,500 people since Friday.
In Austria, five people have died so far as the storm caused severe flooding in St. Polten, the capital and largest city in the state of Lower Austria.
In Romania, where seven people have died, the government has allocated 20 million euros to help flood victims as the eastern part of the country is still recovering from days of heavy rain.
More than 2,200 homes remain without electricity in the flood-hit region, Romania Insider reported, citing Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja.
After the storm hit Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, flooding could affect Slovakia and Hungary as a low-pressure system coming from northern Italy dropped record rainfall on the region.
Croatia is also bracing for a potentially dangerous rise in river levels due to heavy rainfall in the region, with the country’s meteorological and hydrological service warning that the Danube may experience an “extremely rare” rise in water.
The head of health, disasters, climate and crises in the European region of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Tuesday that Europe has been warming at a “much higher rate” than the rest of the world for decades.
