At least 17 people have been killed in some of the worst floods to hit central Europe in decades as Storm Boris sweeps through the region, dumping well over a month’s worth of rain.
Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary have all been hit with extreme rainfall. The Polish government declared a state of emergency after days of rain devastated swathes of the country’s southwestern regions. Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced $260 million (1 billion zloty) in emergency aid for the hardest hit regions on Monday, Polish national news agency PAP reported.
Across the border in the Czech Republic, thousands of residents have been left without hot water and electricity after authorities shuttered heating plants. In the city of Ostrava, which lies 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Polish border, the Veolia heating plant was forced to shut down entirely because of the flooding, leaving the city’s 280,000 residents without hot water, according to CNN affiliate CNN Prima.
Over the past few days, seven died in Romania. In Austria, a firefighter was killed on Sunday and two men aged 70 and 80 were found dead by emergency services after being trapped in their homes on Monday, a spokesperson for the state government of Lower Austria told CNN.
Four people died as a result of floods in Poland, and in the Czech Republic three have died, local police said.
“We are still under immense pressure, as the situation remains highly critical,” Lower Austria governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner told a press conference, stressing that the region is “still in a state of crisis.”
CNN
