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Agence France-Presse

One person has drowned in Poland and an Austrian firefighter has died responding to floods, authorities said Sunday, as Storm Boris lashed central and eastern Europe with torrential rains.
Since Thursday, swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have been hit by high winds and unusually heavy rainfall.
The rains have flooded streets and submerged entire neighbourhoods in some places, while shutting down public transport and electricity in others.
The situation is considered worse in some areas than during the unprecedented floods of 1997.
Romanians waded through armpit-high water to safety, Poles sought shelter in schools and Czechs hurriedly put up sand dykes in an effort to keep the water at bay.
Sunday’s deaths bring the overall toll from the storm to eight, with thousands evacuated across the continent.

In Romania, two bodies were found on Sunday, after four people were reported killed earlier, and one person was declared missing.
Four people were reported missing in the Czech Republic.
“The water came into the house, it destroyed the walls, everything,” Sofia Basalic, 60, a resident of Romania’s village of Pechea, in the hard-hit region of Galati, told Agence France-Presse.
“It took the chickens, the rabbits, everything. It took the oven, the washing machine, the refrigerator. I have nothing left,” she said.
“Heartfelt solidarity with all affected by the devastating floods in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia,” EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X, formerly Twitter, adding that the European Union was ready to offer support.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday morning that “we have the first confirmed death by drowning, in the Klodzko region” on the Polish-Czech border in the southwest of the country, which has been hit hardest by the floods.

Around 1,600 people have been evacuated in Klodzko, and Polish authorities have called in the army to support firefighters.
Separately, a firefighter in northeastern Austria died in floods in the Lower Austria region, which has been classified as a natural disaster zone, regional governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner told reporters on Sunday.
“For many residents, the upcoming hours will be the worst of their lives,” she said.
Emergency services had made nearly 5,000 interventions overnight in the state of Lower Austria, where flooding had trapped many people in their homes.
A motorway from western Austria to Vienna was shut just outside the capital and four of Vienna’s five metro lines had been shut in the city, where the Wien river was threatening to overflow its banks, according to local news reports.

In Poland, authorities shut the Golkowice border crossing with the Czech Republic after a river flooded its banks on Saturday, as well as closing several roads and halting trains on the line linking the towns of Prudnik and Nysa.
Tusk said Ukraine, which is fending off a Russian invasion in its third year, has offered to send some 100 rescuers specially equipped to deal with floods to help as an expression of solidarity with Poland, which has steadfastly backed Kyiv during the war.
“It’s very touching”, Tusk said of the offer.

In the Czech Republic, a dam in the south of the country burst its banks, flooding towns and villages downstream.
The Czech government is set to meet in Prague on Monday to discuss financial aid for those affected. President Petr Pavel called for donations for the victims.
Earlier, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called on citizens to follow the instructions of the emergency services, noting that some people are refusing to obey evacuation orders and leave their homes.
In the village of Velke Hostice, residents put up a wall of sandbags 500 metres long in an effort to hold back the rising waters of the River Opava.
“If we don’t stop the wave, it will flood the lower part of the village,” local hunter Jaroslav Lexa told Agence France-Presse.

In southeastern Romania, another body was found on Sunday in the worst-affected Galati region, where four people had died on Saturday.
“We are again facing the effects of climate change, which are increasingly present on the European continent, with dramatic consequences,” Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis said.
Hundreds of people have been rescued across 19 parts of the country, emergency services said, releasing a video of flooded homes in a village by the Danube river.
“This is a catastrophe of epic proportions,” said Emil Dragomir, mayor of Slobozia Conachi, a village in Galati, where he said 700 homes had been flooded.

Romania’s interior minister said more than 6,000 households and 15,000 people were affected in the region.
In Austria, some areas of the Tyrol region were blanketed by up to a metre (three feet) of snow – an exceptional situation for mid-September, which saw temperatures of up to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) last week.
Rail services were suspended in the country’s east early on Sunday.
In neighbouring Slovakia, a state of emergency has been declared in the capital Bratislava.
Heavy rains are expected to continue until at least Monday in the Czech Republic and Poland.
Additional reporting by dpa


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European Union

Death toll rises as Storm Boris lashes central and eastern Europe

A view of the overflowing of the Staric River on Sunday following heavy rain that hit the village of Lipova-Lazne in the Czech Republic. Floods have been battering central and eastern Europe since Friday, with at least four dead in Romania, one dead in Poland and four missing in the Czech Republic. Photo: EPA-EFE

A resident waits to be evacuated from his flooded house in Jesenik, Czech Republic on Sunday. Photo: AP

Firefighters help a resident during floods in the Czech Republic on Sunday. Photo: AP

This aerial photograph taken on Sunday shows a view of the flooded city centre in Glucholazy, southern Poland. Photo: AFP

Parts of the Czech Republic are seeing major flooding following intense rainfall. Other parts of Europe are also being affected, with several deaths. Photo: EPA-EFE

Evacuees stand on the back of a lorry following floods caused by heavy rainfalls in Visnova, Czech Republic on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

A road destroyed by floods near Boeheimkirchen, Austria, on Sunday. Photo: AFP

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Carolyn Baker, who collapsed from heatstroke at the Falmouth Road Race in 2023, prepares for the 2024 race in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Photo: AP

Runners in the Falmouth Road Race. Medical director John Jardine has documented nearly 500 cases of heatstroke in more than two decades at the race. Photo: AP

Medical worker Timothy Seaman watches as a runner crosses the finish line at the Falmouth Road Race. Photo: AP

Baker’s temperature was measured at 41.6 degrees Celsius when she collapsed from heatstroke, and she was revived by being put in an ice bath. Photo: AP

Baker drinks water in her kitchen before heading out for the Falmouth Road Race. Photo: AP

Carolyn Baker safely finished the 2024 Falmouth Road Race. Photo: AP

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News

World

Europe

8 people have died as swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia hit by high winds and floods


8 people have died as swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia hit by high winds and floods.
