Exceptional rains in several countries, four dead in Romania

(Slobozia Conachi) The storm Boris four people died in Romania on Saturday, as exceptional rains caused flooding in several countries in central and eastern Europe.

Romanian rescue services announced that they had found the bodies of four people during a search operation in the worst-hit region, Galati (southeast), where 5,000 homes have been affected.

“Due to heavy rainfall, floods occurred” and in total across the country, 19 localities and hundreds of people were rescued, they said.

The army has deployed 10 rescue boats to reach residents trapped by the waters in Pechea, a particularly affected village.

Camps are being set up to accommodate residents driven from their homes by rising waters.

“Dramatic consequences”

Seven hundred houses were flooded in the village of Slobozia Conachi, according to its mayor Emil Dragomir, interviewed by local television Digi24, a “catastrophe of extraordinary magnitude”.

“We had floods eleven years ago, but it wasn’t this bad,” he added, as the main street resembles a torrent.

Dragu Stefan, 52, an employee of a nearby sewage company, told AFP that he had “tried to save something” but it was “a waste of time because the water came too quickly.”

President Klaus Iohannis issued a statement saying he “extended his condolences to the bereaved families.”

“We are once again faced with the effects of climate change, which are increasingly present on the European continent,” said the head of state. “We must continue to anticipate extreme weather events.”

Flooding from heavy rainfall is expected to increase in central Europe in a world warmer by 1.5°C on average, IPCC climate experts said in a 2022 report.

Sandbags

In the Czech Republic, 100,000 firefighters are on call and nearly 50,000 homes are without electricity on Saturday, the electricity company CEZ said.

A hospital in the southeastern city of Brno was evacuated on Saturday morning. The region of Moravia (northeast) declared a state of emergency.

“The soil is now saturated, which means that all rainwater will remain on the surface,” Environment Minister Petr Hladik told X.

In the eastern city of Olomouc, Robert Hubinak went to collect bags to protect his house. “I have brought back about three tons of sand since yesterday,” he explained.

A state of emergency has also been declared in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.

On the Polish side, the situation seems most precarious in the southwest, according to the government, and the next few hours will be difficult.

“The water continues to rise” and there is “no hope that it will stop raining,” lamented Zofia Owsianka, 65, in Glucholazy.

Snow in September

In Austria, winds of up to 146 km/h were recorded in the south of the country and precipitation of up to 170 litres of water per square metre in the north.

In the capital Vienna, firefighters have intervened around 150 times in the past 24 hours to clear debris from streets or pump out water from cellars, according to local media.

The wooded part of the Schönbrunn park, Austria’s most visited site, has been closed as a security measure, emergency services told APA. Cemeteries will remain closed on Sunday.

While the “peak has not yet been reached” according to Chancellor Karl Nehammer, part of the north-east of the country has been classified as a natural disaster zone.

In the western mountains, snow is blocking traffic on several roads and rescue services are searching for a man missing after an avalanche.

Tyrol is covered in a layer of snow of up to one metre in places, an exceptional situation in mid-September, when temperatures above 30 degrees were recorded last week.