Storm Boris has wreaked havoc on Central Europe this weekend with torrential rains that have already caused seven deaths in Romania, Poland and Austria, as well as flooding hundreds of towns and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people. Romania has borne the brunt of the storm after five people have died since Saturday in the province of Galati, in the south-east of the country, and at least one remains missing. The dead were found in their homes in Pechea, Draguseni, Costache Negri and Corod. Some were unable to move from their beds and others were found in the yards of their homes.
The Prime Minister, the Social Democrat Marcel Ciolacu, admitted in a camp set up in Slobozia Conachi (Galati province) to accommodate those affected, that there are still “a lot of nerves and tension” in the area, but the situation is beginning to be “under control”. In order to coordinate surveillance, search and rescue operations, the Romanian government has activated a command centre in the capital, Bucharest, and an inter-ministerial emergency committee.
Floodwaters have engulfed dozens of cars and animals, flooded more than 5,000 homes, left 25,000 houses without electricity and affected at least 15,000 people, the Interior Ministry said. Authorities have evacuated at least 320 citizens from 22 municipalities in the counties of Argeș, Bacau, Galați, Iași, Neamț, Timiș and Vaslui in the south and east of the country. The situation there remains critical. Some 30 trucks have delivered food, sleeping bags and blankets to those affected.
“The work of many people has disappeared in half an hour. The whole village of my childhood is under water,” lamented Oana Deliu, who spent her childhood in Slobozia Conachi, where the severe storm has damaged more than 700 homes. “What remains there are houses full of mud, wet objects and immense sadness, anger and resignation,” she said.
The authorities have been forced to open a hole in the Sucu River dam in the province of Galati to relieve the flooding, announced the president of the Senate, the liberal Nicolae Ciuca, on Sunday. “The situation is dramatic; the measures must continue, there must be everything necessary to manage the needs of support for the population, as well as those of infrastructure,” said Ciuca. For his part, Ciolacu said that the army is ready to intervene as soon as the water level drops. “After the advance tonight (early Sunday morning), they have seen that things are starting to return to normal. Already on the way, the army is preparing with specialized vehicles to arrive after the water recedes; everything is under control,” insisted the head of the Romanian government.
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The worst rains in decades are also hitting Poland. One person drowned and 1,600 were evacuated in Klodzko county in the southwest. “The situation is very dramatic, especially in Klodzko county,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday after meeting the crisis management team there. Some 17,000 households were left without electricity and mobile connections in some areas. Road access to the towns of Ladek Zdroj and Stronie Slaskie was virtually cut off, Tusk said.
Klodzko, a town of 25,000 people, was partly under water due to the high flooding of the river in the area, which has surpassed the record of the heavy floods of 1997, which claimed 56 lives in Poland. “I call on residents to cooperate with rescue services in cases where evacuation is requested,” Tusk said.
In the historic town of Glucholazy in the neighbouring province of Opole, the mayor ordered a mandatory evacuation on Sunday morning as the local river began to overflow. Firefighters, local authorities and soldiers have been battling since Saturday to protect a bridge in the town, laying paving stones to make it heavier and more resistant. Firefighters have been working in southwestern Poland since the weekend to contain the flooding. More rain is forecast for Sunday and Monday, which will make the situation worse.
The storm has also hit Austria. In the Lower Austria region, which has been declared a disaster area due to multiple floods, a firefighter has died. “We are experiencing difficult and dramatic times in Lower Austria. For many, these will probably be the most difficult hours of their lives,” said the head of the regional government, Johanna Mikl-Leitner. “Unfortunately, a firefighter died during the flooding operation. We are in mourning with his family,” she added, without giving further details of the incident.
In the Waldviertel region, about 120 kilometres north-west of Vienna, authorities are expecting the “flood of the century” as they expect the Kamp River, a tributary of the Danube, to exceed levels recorded in the past 100 years, causing the Ottenstein reservoir to overflow. The government has been warning for days of the arrival of the severe storm, which has forced road closures, suspended railway and underground services in Vienna and caused severe flooding in many towns. The capital of Lower Austria, St. Pölten, has already recorded 321 millimetres in four days, the wettest September since measurements began in 1984, according to the state research institution Geosphere Austria.
In the southern Austrian state of Styria, home to Graz, the country’s second-largest city, storms have left 25,000 households without electricity overnight, according to energy supplier Energie Steiermark.
In the Czech Republic, a quarter of a million households were left without electricity due to strong winds and rain. Czech police were searching Sunday for three people who were travelling in a car that fell into the Staric River near Lipova Lazne, 235 kilometres east of Prague, as the storm spread and caused flooding in several areas.
Moldova is another country affected by the storm. In Chisinau, the capital of the former Soviet republic, several people were rescued from the streets by floodwaters. The rains paralysed the city after the Bic river burst its banks. The main arteries turned into swirling rivers and underground passages into lakes. Public transport stopped working and there were problems in areas near the Prut river, on the border with Romania.
