At least eight people have died after some of the heaviest rain in years hit central and eastern Europe, causing flooding and widespread disruption.
A slow-moving low pressure system dubbed Storm Boris dumped months’ worth of rain onto several of Europe’s historic capitals, including Vienna, Bratislava and Prague, over just a few days.
On Monday, heavy rainfall continued to pummel the region with red alerts, the highest-level warning, still in effect for portions of Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovakia.
In Poland on Sunday, one person drowned in Klodzko county and authorities advised residents of Moszczanka and Laka Prudnicka to evacuate after a dam at risk of collapse breached. In Austria the same day, a firefighter died in action, the fire department told CNN.
In Romania, two more people were confirmed to have died from flooding on Sunday, following four deaths on Saturday.
Rescuers have been working hard to rescue hundreds of people left stranded by heavy rainfall there. “The effects were most critical in seven localities,” Romania’s Interior Minister Cătălin Predoiu told Antena 3. Although teams managed to save 95 people trapped in their homes, the bodies of the dead were found in either their houses or yards, Predoiu added.
Around 5,400 houses have been damaged in the southeastern region of Galati which has been hardest hit by the flooding, Antena 3 reported.
Residents in one of the region’s villages, Pechea, recounted their shock at the devastation wrought by the flooding. “I have nothing left,” social worker Sofia Basalic told AFP, describing how the gushes of water had “entered the house” and “tore down the walls,” destroying her kitchen appliances and killing her farm animals.
Factory worker Gica Stan, whose entire house was also flooded, said he didn’t even have a “needle left” and was now relying on donated clothes.
Rescue services have been launched in hard-hit counties as authorities warn that they have recorded the heaviest rainfall in 100 years over the past 24 hours.
While rainfall is expected to gradually ease for some of the hardest hit areas as Storm Boris slowly heads south towards the Mediterranean, flooding could persist in already waterlogged areas.
Rivers have burst their banks in Poland and the Czech Republic. In southwest Poland, 1,600 people were evacuated in Klodzko county as local rivers reached record high water levels and broke their banks. Klodzko, a town of 25,000, was left partially submerged in water on Sunday.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters Sunday: “We have the first confirmed death by drowning, here in the Klodzko County.”
“The situation is still very dramatic in many place,” he added. “Unfortunately, these situations are repeating themselves in many places… but some residents sometimes underestimate the level of threat and refuse to evacuate.”
In a post on X, Tusk said the government would announce a state of disaster and seek aid from the European Union.
In the Czech Republic, authorities have been grappling with torrential rainfall across the breadth of the country. Czech President Petr Pavel warned reporters on Sunday that the flooding was still “far from over” with the country’s poorest regions likely to suffer the “greatest damage” in the coming days.
In the northeast, up to 80% of the city of Krnov is submerged under water, CNN affiliate CNN Prima reported on Sunday.
Since the beginning of the extreme rains, more than 10,500 people have been evacuated in the Czech Republic, General Director of the Fire Rescue Service Vladimír Vlček told CNN Prima News
“Water is flowing over the whole of Krnov. We estimate that 70-80% of the town is under water. The water is almost at the town hall. The square is two-thirds flooded,” the town’s deputy mayor, Miroslav Binar said.
In the southern municipality of Benešově nad Černou, authorities released footage on Saturday showing two women being rescued by boat from a flooded street after failing to heed mandatory evacuation orders.
In Germany, southern and eastern states in particular are preparing for flooding. Flood warnings have been issued for rivers in the state of Saxony.
In neighboring Austria, heavy rainfall has caused water levels to rise in several rivers and rescue services have been called out to parts of the country. Many municipalities in Lower Austria have declared a state of emergency as heavy rainfall continued into Sunday.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent and global heating is fueling extreme weather events there. A warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor, meaning more intense rain when it falls, and hotter oceans whip up stronger storms.
An analysis of a 2021 heavy rainfall event in Europe, in which more than 200 people were killed, found human-caused climate change had increased the likelihood and intensity of these events in the region. The World Weather Attribution initiative — a group of scientists who study extreme weather and published the analysis — concluded “these changes will continue in a rapidly warming climate.”
European Union chiefs have also offered to assist countries dealing with the downpours.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen expressed her “heartfelt solidarity” to EU countries impacted by the flooding, also paying condolences to flooding “victims and their families” in a social media post.
CNN meteorologists Taylor Ward, Allison Chinchar, and Elliana Hebert contributed to this report.
