Central Europe flood deaths rise as citizens race to build defences

By Kacper Pempel and Kuba Stezycki

WROCLAW, Poland (Reuters) -Volunteers and emergency personnel raced to secure river banks and buildings in Poland and Hungary on Tuesday as flood waters that have wreaked havoc across central Europe began to rise in new areas and the Czech Republic reported another death.

The worst floods to hit central Europe in at least two decades have left a trail of destruction from Romania to Poland, spreading mud and debris in towns, destroying bridges, submerging cars and leaving authorities and householders with a bill for damages that will run into billions of dollars.

Authorities in the Czech Republic announced the death of a fourth person in that country on Wednesday, bringing the death toll across the region to at least 23. Seven people have been killed in Romania, seven in Poland, and five in Austria.

Czech media reported the latest victim was a 70-year-old woman from a village near Jesenik who was found 20 metres from her house. She had been evacuated on Saturday but left the evacuation centre on Sunday to return home, Czech TV said.

In the Czech Republic, water levels were mostly receding, but rivers were still peaking in some parts of southern Bohemia.

DIFFICULT HOURS AHEAD

In Poland's third-largest city Wroclaw, lines of people passed sandbags to fortify river banks and to protect buildings, while further south soldiers built walls of sandbags on the banks of the Oder.

Authorities expect waters to peak in Wroclaw on Thursday.

"We are concentrating on keeping the Oder within its banks," said Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak. "We have a very difficult dozen or so hours ahead of us."

The Polish defence ministry said more than 14,000 soldiers had been deployed to flood-hit regions, with the armed forces using helicopters to evacuate people and strengthen flood defences, while drones monitored the situation from above.

At a water level measurement station near Wroclaw, the Oder had already significantly exceeded the alarm level.

Albert Wrotnowski, 29, an artist living nearby, was securing the riverbank with sandbags.

"The mood is positive," he told Reuters. "I think people have such faith and hope, and you can see it."

'TRAGIC HARDSHIPS'

Pope Francis talked about the "tragic hardships" caused by the floods during his weekly general audience in St Peter's Square.

"I assure everyone of my closeness, praying especially for those who have lost their lives and their families."

In Hungary, authorities opened a dam in the country's northwest to channel water from the Leitha river into an emergency reservoir in a bid to protect the city of Mosonmagyarovar.

The water was allowed to flow onto agricultural land.

In the capital Budapest, the Danube is still expected to peak around or slightly above 8.5 metres, likely on Friday or Saturday.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited the village of Kismaros, north of Budapest on the banks of the Danube, to see how preparations for rising waters were taking shape.

In Kismaros, 70% of the defences were in place, with nearly 100,000 sandbags already used, government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs wrote on X.

"We are waiting for the peak in Kismaros on Friday," Orban wrote in a post on Facebook. "It will be difficult, but our soldiers will stand their ground. We will do it!"

FINANCIAL AID

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was due to visit Wroclaw on Thursday, where she will meet leaders from affected countries. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said they are calling on Brussels to provide financial aid.

Poland's Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski told a crisis meeting in Wroclaw that Poland had set aside 2 billion zlotys ($521 million) in funds to deal with the effects of the floods.

Tusk said there had been reports of soaring prices for many products in flood-hit areas and he did not rule out the introduction of price controls.

He also said the government would pay instalments of the mortgages of people whose houses had been flooded for a year.

Czech Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said on Tuesday he would like parliament to approve an amendment to the budget to make room for flood relief, even though the cost of the damage is still not known. Stanjura said it could perhaps be in the order of $4 billion.

Mayors of some Czech towns in the Opava river area demanded that this weekend's elections for regional assemblies and one third of the upper house of parliament be postponed due to a lack of power and flooding of polling stations.

However, the government has decided to carry on with the vote, saying that makeshift voting stations and other improvised solutions would be used.

($1 = 3.8385 zlotys)

(Reporting by Kacper Pempel in Wroclaw, Pawel Florkiewicz in Warsaw, Krisztina Than and Gergely Szakacs in Budapest, Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet in Prague, Fedja Grulovic, Dragan Kastratovic in Venek, Crispian Balmer in Rome, Writing by Alan Charlish; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Angus MacSwan)