Devastating floods affect central and eastern Europe after continent's hottest summer ever

Record-breaking rainfall and flash floods are ravaging parts of central and eastern Europe with overflowing rivers that have killed at least 10 people and left towns from Poland to Romania underwater or struck by rushing debris-filled waves.

In just a day, Storm Boris poured heavy rain accompanied by high-speed winds in Poland, Romania, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.

Storm Boris, a slow-moving low-pressure system, is currently dumping extremely heavy rain across central and eastern Europe with additional rain expected until at least the night of Sep 16.

The World Weather Attribution Network found that the likelihood and intensity of major flooding events in Europe were increased due to climate change after observing severe flooding in 2021.

The reason why the storm has turned so devastating is because the cold air from the north has mixed with moisture drawn up from the unusually warm waters of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a BBC report said.

In addition to that, an area of low pressure has been stuck in a blocked weather pattern, meaning it is trapped between high pressure to both the west and east.

The World Weather Attribution Network has attributed the effect to increasing global temperature which may intensify such events in Europe in future.

Authorities issued the strongest flood warnings in almost 100 locations throughout the Czech Republic affecting the majority of the country.

The Jeseniky mountains, which are close to the Polish border, and two other northeastern districts that had experienced the most rainfall in recent days were most severely affected.

The mayor of Litovel, a city in the Czech Republic with a population of about 10,000, said in a Facebook video that the swelling Morava River overnight submerged about 70% of the city and forced the closure of schools and medical institutions.

Litovel is located 230 kilometers (140 miles) east of Prague.

Two chemical plants and a power plant that provided the city with heat and hot water had to close due to flooding in areas of Ostrava, the regional capital of northeastern Czechia.

Taking to X, Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Sep 15 said that over 12,000 people had been evacuated from the Czech Republic.

Raging torrents converted roads into rivers and submerged towns and villages in the Jeseniky mountains. Numerous trees were brought down by strong winds, which also damaged several cars and bridges and obstructed traffic.

Zdenka Blistanova, the mayor of Jesenik, said on Czech public television that numerous homes in her and nearby towns have been destroyed by the floods.

The Associated Press reports that on Sep 15 morning, traffic was stopped on numerous highways, including the main D1 highway, and that approximately 260,000 families nationwide were without power.

Evacuations were necessary because the Oder River, which empties into Poland, was rising to extremely high levels in Bohumin and the city of Ostrava.

On Sep 16, the Polish cabinet was scheduled to convene and declare a state of emergency. With only 25,000 inhabitants, the Austrian municipality of Lilienfeld is isolated from the outside world.

As a precaution, residents were instructed to boil their tap water. River and reservoir levels in Austria decreased during the course of the night as the rain lessened, but authorities warned that a second wave of harder rain was predicted in the next few hours.

The Wien River in Vienna overflowed its banks, and the area around the Kamp River, which empties into the Danube, was especially hazardous.

The Polish authorities were also obliged to close many highways and delay trains on the line connecting the cities of Prudnik and Nysa, as well as closing the border crossing with the Czech Republic at Gołkowice due to flooding of its banks by a river.

The town of Klodzko, which has roughly 25,000 residents and is situated in a valley in the Sudetes mountains close to the Czech Republic border, is described by Polish Prime Minister Tusk as having "dramatic" circumstances.

Rising sea levels in Glucholazy caused a river embankment to overflow, flooding homes and streets. "We are drowning," declared Mayor Paweł Szymkowicz, pleading with people to move to higher land.

Floodwaters breached a dam in Stronie Śląskie, causing a police station building to fall and a bridge in the town to collapse due to the strain of the floods.

The Polish authorities were also obliged to close many highways and delay trains on the line connecting the cities of Prudnik and Nysa, as well as close the border crossing with the Czech Republic at Gołkowice due to flooding of its banks by a river.

"In the city of Jelenia Gora, which has 75,000 residents, downtown streets were flooded after one of the embankments burst on the Bobr River. Energy supplies and communications were cut off in some flooded areas, and regions may resort to using the satellite-based Starlink service,” PM Tusk said.

As the Danube rose, the capitals of Slovakia and Hungary, Bratislava and Budapest, were getting prepared. In Bratislava, a state of emergency has been declared.

"According to forecasts, one of the biggest floods of the past years is approaching Budapest, but we are prepared to tackle it," Mayor Gergely Karacsony of Budapest, the capital of Hungary, has issued a warning.

Six people have lost their lives to floods in southeast Romania in the last two days. Galati was the worst hit area, with almost 5,000 houses suffering damage.

In the Austrian town of Tullin, a firefighter lost his life after "slipping on stairs" while trying to pump out a flooded basement.

Four people in the Czech Republic were reported missing by police after being carried away by floods.

Three of them had been in a car that was swept into a river in the northeastern town of Lipová-lázne, while another man was missing after being swept away by floods in the southeast, The Guardian report claimed.

Mayor Tomáš Navrátil informed Czech public radio that there was no need to wait, claiming that the situation was worse than it was during the terrible floods of 1997, known as the "flood of the century."

The military dispatched a helicopter to assist with evacuations in the Jeseniky mountains.

In the northeastern region of the country, the entire state of Lower Austria was declared a disaster zone by the authorities, and 10,000 aid workers have already evacuated 1,100 homes there.

Residents who were forced to leave their houses due to flooding were given shelter by emergency workers.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said the situation “continues to worsen.” He said 2,400 soldiers were ready to support the relief effort in Austria.

One thousand of them would be sent to Lower Austria, the crisis area where dams were starting to break.

In a few situations, persons in Klodzko, Poland, were picked up from roofs by helicopters.