Due to the heavy rains that Cyclone Boris brought to Central Europe, as well as local flooding in the upper reaches of rivers and streams in the mountainous area on the border of Poland and the Czech Republic, residents of two regions in the Czech Republic and five in Poland are facing a sleepless night.
"A critical night awaits us. A cyclone that brings showers and cloudbursts is not completely predictable. Forecasts are changing, but they are not optimistic. Tonight and tomorrow we are expecting record rainfall and the situation can be compared to the floods of 1997 and 2010," he said. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters after the crisis headquarters meeting in Nisa, in the south of Poland.
The Polish prime minister said there was disturbing news coming from the Czech Republic, where two regions in the east of the country have declared a state of emergency, but rejected speculation that flooding in Poland could worsen the measures taken by the Czech authorities.
Prime Minister Tusk tried to reassure the citizens that although the coming hours will bring local floods in the south-west and south of Poland, comparable to the disastrous ones in previous years, that only a small part of the country was affected, and the situation is now incomparably better because large funds have been invested in infrastructure and measures against flooding.
"We are much better prepared, the infrastructure, polders, reservoirs that protect Wrocław have been built. The situation there is not the worst. It is hard to say that it is better because many people have been affected, but the damage and danger are now less, although floods are a dramatic challenge for everyone." , said the Prime Minister.
Of the big cities, Katowice and Kraków are particularly at risk, where water entered one of the hospitals, and water from two streams spilled onto the streets.
The situation in the village of Gluholazi near Nisa is also critical, where the torrent threatens to collapse two bridges, and several hundred people have already been evacuated from that village.
The Polish Prime Minister appealed to citizens not to refuse evacuation, because in a few hours it could be too late.
The same problem also plagues the neighboring Czech Republic, where many residents refused to evacuate the firefighters in Jesenjik nad Odra in the east of the Czech Republic, even though the water started to flood the streets, explaining that they survived the floods in 1997 and will do the same this time.
"My sister brought me schnitzels, they can be eaten cold. I'm not afraid of water. In the worst case, there's a hill behind the house where I have a shed," explained one Czech who refused evacuation.
The floods also attract irresponsible adventurers who take the opportunity to go down the rapids in boats, or even surfers who go out on man-made lakes to take advantage of the strong wind.
Police and firefighters are searching for the first missing persons in the Czech Republic who were swept away by the flood, a 54-year-old man who fell into a swollen stream and three people who were trapped in a car that fell into a swollen river.
Czech meteorologists have warned that only a third of the precipitation brought by Cyclone Boris has fallen so far, and that even Monday will not bring an end to the precipitation.
Water levels have reached alarming levels in 244 places in the Czech Republic, mainly in the Moravian-Silesian and Olomouc regions, but also in smaller areas in the south of the Czech Republic.
The capital city of Prague is currently not threatened, navigation on the Vltava is prohibited in the city, ships and boats are anchored firmly in the docks, and only in a few of the most critical places have mobile barriers been erected to protect the city since the last floods in 2013.
The zoo and some parks in Prague and other cities are closed, but not because of flooding, but because strong winds bring down trees and branches. Traffic was stopped on 20 railway lines in the Czech Republic.
The situation is much worse in Opava and Ostrava, the industrial metropolises in the east that perished in the floods of 1997.
As a preventive measure, some patients are being evacuated from hospitals, for example in Bohumin near Ostrava, and the region is afraid that the flood waves on the Odra and Opava rivers will merge, because then the water would flood the power plant in Trebovice, which supplies the entire area with electricity, as well as heating and also chemical factory BorsodHem, where work was stopped as a precaution.
Due to breakdowns on electric lines, more than 50 people were without power in the Czech Republic in the afternoon, not only in areas where there is a threat of flooding, but also in the north of the country.
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