NYSA, Poland. Central Europe continues to reel from devastating floods that have claimed at least 19 lives, as rivers across the region burst their banks, inundating towns and cities. Volunteers and rescue workers in Nysa, Poland, joined forces on Tuesday to reinforce flood defenses, as the rising waters threaten further destruction. The floods, which began over the weekend, have swept through Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary, leaving a trail of devastation.
In Nysa, a city of more than 40,000 people in southwestern Poland, volunteers worked through the night, stacking sandbags alongside rescue teams to fortify the embankment around the swollen Nysa River. The efforts were supported by military helicopters dropping sandbags from above. Poland’s National Fire Chief, Mariusz Feltynowski, confirmed that the embankment had been successfully sealed. However, fears of looting lingered among residents, many of whom had been evacuated on Monday.
“They assured us that services would take care of our belongings and property. But we are afraid … because we are already hearing that looters have become active,” said Sabina Jakubowska, a 45-year-old resident of Nysa.
Poland has declared a state of disaster in the affected regions and has allocated 1 billion zlotys ($260 million) to support flood victims. The country is bracing for further challenges, with the historic city of Wroclaw preparing for water levels to peak along the Oder River. Mayor Jacek Sutryk confirmed that buses were ready for evacuation if necessary and that additional embankments were being reinforced.
The flooding has taken a heavy toll across the region, with seven deaths reported in Romania, four in Poland, five in Austria, and three in the Czech Republic. Tens of thousands of homes in Poland and the Czech Republic remain without power or fresh water. In the Czech Republic, the northeastern Moravia-Silesia region has been particularly hard-hit, with 15,000 people evacuated and helicopters delivering aid to isolated areas.
In Ostrava, a major industrial city in the Czech Republic, a broken barrier on the Oder River caused severe flooding in the city’s industrial area, including the BorsodChem chemical plant and coking plant OKK Koksovny. Czech authorities continue to battle the floodwaters as the death toll rises.
Neighboring Hungary and Slovakia are also grappling with the rising waters. In Hungary, authorities have put mobile dams in place in the historic towns of Visegrad and Szentendre, north of Budapest, as they prepare for the Danube River to reach near-record levels. Margaret Island, a popular recreational spot in Budapest, has been closed off, with thousands of sandbags piled up to protect the area.
Slovakia’s Environment Minister, Tomas Taraba, confirmed that the Danube had peaked at nearly 10 meters overnight, but water levels are expected to gradually fall. Damage across the country is estimated at 20 million euros.
The financial toll of the flooding is mounting, with credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS estimating that the losses across Central Europe could range from several hundred million euros to over one billion euros ($1.1 billion). In the Czech Republic’s Moravia-Silesia region alone, Governor Josef Belica projected that the damage would amount to tens of billions of crowns (over $1 billion).
As the situation remains critical, the people of Central Europe continue to battle the rising waters, fortifying their towns and cities in an effort to protect lives and property, while governments mobilize resources to mitigate the growing disaster.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
