Prague/Vienna, Sep 16 (EFE).- Severe floods across much of central and Eastern Europe have left several people dead or missing.
Police in Austria said Monday that three people had died in the Alpine nation due to storm ‘Boris’, which has brought torrential rains and high winds to the region in recent days.
Two of the victims died after their homes were flooded, while a firefighter died over the weekend during rescue and relief efforts.
Some 13 towns in the state of Lower Austria were still cut off on Monday morning, public broadcaster ORF reported.
The water has broken 12 dams in the state, while 12,000 households are without electricity and 23 towns are without drinking water.
Some 800 people have been rescued by helicopter in recent hours in Lower Austria, the largest and most populous federal state of the Alpine republic, which has been declared a ‘disaster area’.
Firefighters, as well as 300 soldiers and 13 helicopters, are working against the clock to rescue the trapped people and strengthen the dams.
The rains are forecast to continue until Tuesday.
In the Czech Republic, at least one person has drowned in the Krasovka River in the northwest of the country due to the floods brought by the storm.
Seven were still missing, police said Monday.
Persistent rains since Thursday have caused many rivers and streams to burst their banks.
The highest flood alert level has been declared in dozens of towns, especially in the northeastern Moravian-Silesian region.
The town of Litovel, which crosses the Morava River, is 80 percent “is underwater”, the local mayor said.
“We are cut off from the world, at the moment no one can get in or out here, only firefighters, because somewhere the water is already more than a meter high,” said Viktor Kohout.
More than 12,000 people have been evacuated in the country, where hundreds of thousands of homes are without power.
Numerous major roads have been closed, especially in the Moravian-Silesian and Olomouc regions in the northeast, including part of the D1 highway near Ostrava, Transport Minister Martin Kupka said. EFE
wr-gm/ks
