Czech insurers braced for enormous losses from floods

Insurers in the Czech Republic have provided an extremely gloomy initial estimate of the extent of the destruction caused by the current flooding.

A spokesman for the national insurance association said on Tuesday that the association expects insured damages of around €670 million ($745 million), according to the CTK news agency. Half of this is attributable to private households and the other half to businesses.

This would make this year's floods the second costliest natural disaster in the country's history, surpassed only by the devastating floods of 2002.

Aid organizations have launched appeals for donations to help those people who are insufficiently covered, or with no insurance at all.

The state forestry company Lesy CR put the initial estimate of its losses at more than €8 million. It says that around 260,000 cubic metres of timber have been damaged in the state forests. People have been urged not to enter the forests because trees could fall over without warning, even in calm conditions.

The damage to the transport infrastructure is also likely to be enormous, with many bridges destroyed or unusable. The main railway station in Czech Republic's third largest city, Ostrava, is under water, and it's unclear when it will be accessible by rail again.