Seven hundred houses have been flooded in Romania, where authorities are warning of a “catastrophe of extraordinary magnitude”In Austria, winds of up to 146 kilometres per hour were recorded.
Storm Boris killed four people in Romania on Saturday, as exceptional rains caused flooding in several countries in central and eastern Europe. Romanian rescue services announced that they had found the bodies of four people during a search operation in the worst-hit region, Galati (southeast), where 5,000 homes were affected.
“Due to heavy rainfall, floods occurred” and in total, 19 towns and hundreds of people were rescued across the country, they said. In one of their videos, several dozen houses can be seen under water in a village along the Danube.
Seven hundred houses were flooded in the village of Slobozia Conachi, in the Galati region, according to its mayor Emil Dragomir, interviewed by local television Digi24, a “catastrophe of extraordinary magnitude”. “We had floods eleven years ago, but it was not this bad.”he added. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu is expected in the region and President Klaus Iohannis said in a statement, “extended his condolences to the bereaved families”.
“Dramatic consequences”
“We are once again faced with the effects of climate change, increasingly present on the European continent, with dramatic consequences”said the head of state. “We must continue to strengthen the capacity to anticipate extreme weather events and to alert the population”.
STR / AFP
In the Czech Republic, 100,000 firefighters are on call and nearly 2,900 incidents were recorded on Friday, mainly falling trees and floods. Nearly 50,000 homes were without electricity on Saturday, the electricity company CEZ said. A hospital in the city of Brno (southeast) was evacuated on Saturday morning. The region of Moravia (northeast) declared a state of emergency.
“The ground is now saturated, which means that all rainwater will remain on the surface”said Environment Minister Petr Hladik on X. In the eastern city of Olomouc, Robert Hubinak went to get sandbags to protect his house. “I’ve brought back about three tons of sand since yesterday. Sixty or maybe 80 bags.”he told AFP, while free sand is being offered to threatened residents. A state of emergency has also been declared in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.
Snow in September
On the Polish side, the situation seems most precarious in the southwest, according to the government, and the next few hours will be the most difficult. The Polish-Czech border crossing at Golkowice was closed on Saturday following the overflowing of a river. The railway line between Prudnik and Nysa was closed to traffic, as were several roads in the region.
In Austria, winds of up to 146 kilometres per hour were recorded in the south of the country and rainfall of up to 170 litres of water per square metre in the north. In the capital Vienna, firefighters have intervened around 150 times in the last 24 hours to clear arteries clogged with debris or to pump out water invading cellars, according to local media. The wooded part of the Schönbrunn park, Austria’s most visited site, has been closed as a safety measure, emergency services told the APA news agency.
While the “peak not yet reached” According to Chancellor Karl Nehammer, 4,000 homes in the Styrian region are without electricity. In the mountainous areas of the west, snow is blocking traffic on several roads and rescue workers are searching for a man missing after an avalanche. In places, Tyrol is covered in snow up to a metre deep, an exceptional situation for mid-September, when temperatures above 30 degrees were recorded last week.
Related News :