The body of a fifth victim of Storm Boris in Austria was found in his flooded home on Tuesday, police said, bringing the death toll in the country to five and a total of 19 in Europe.
A “81 year old woman” died, a spokesman for the Lower Austria police told AFP. A firefighter had also died on Sunday and on Monday, the deaths of three men, aged 40-50, 70 and 80 respectively, had been announced.
Storm Boris has killed at least 19 people in Central and Eastern Europe: in addition to the five victims in Austria, Romania has recorded seven deaths so far, Poland four and the Czech Republic three, as well as eight missing. While the weather situation seems to be improving in several places, the ground remains saturated and rivers are bursting their banks, leading the authorities to ask the population to remain extremely cautious.
In Austria, 26 villages are still cut off from the outside world and as the sun returns, “We are discovering the extent of the disaster”according to regional governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner.
In total, 33,000 interventions have taken place since the torrential rains and strong winds began on Friday. In Vienna, four metro lines remain partially closed, as do all of the city’s parks due to possible falling trees. In the Czech Republic, just over 60,000 homes are still without electricity, mainly in the northeast. The country’s largest retention basin, the Rozmberk pond (south), is flooding its banks.
The flood is expected to be the worst in the region since the 2002 floods that hit Prague, Dresden and Vienna, according to experts.
