Southern Poland faces flooding threat as Central Europe’s floodwaters recede

• The European Union’s head office identifies a “climate breakdown” as a result of the floods and wildfires.
• A 70-year-old woman was found dead in the Czech Republic, Kobyla nad Vidnavkou, near Jesenik.
• Despite improved weather conditions, some areas, particularly in southwestern Poland, face threats.

On Wednesday, soldiers and volunteers in southwestern Poland were laying sandbags near swollen rivers in the Wroclaw region to protect homes and businesses after days of flooding across Central Europe.

A low-pressure system that began dumping record rainfall last Thursday has caused severe flooding across several Central European nations, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania.

Authorities have reported 23 deaths so far, with seven each in Poland and Romania, five in Austria, and four in the Czech Republic. The European Union’s head office stated on Wednesday that the combination of floods in Central Europe and deadly wildfires in Portugal serves as clear evidence of a “climate breakdown” that will become the norm unless drastic action is taken.

On Wednesday, police reported the fourth death in the Czech Republic, discovering the body of a 70-year-old woman who had been swept away by waters on Sunday. She was found in the town of Kobyla nad Vidnavkou, near Jesenik, which is in the severely affected northeast region.

The weather has improved, bringing warm and sunny conditions to the Czech Republic, Poland, and other areas. Water levels have dropped in some places, enabling authorities and residents to clean up debris. Firefighters in Poland are pumping water out of flooded streets and basements. In Romania, approximately 1,000 firefighters are working nationwide to clean up severely affected areas, according to the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations’ Facebook post on Wednesday.

However, some areas, especially in southwestern Poland, continue to face threats. In Marcinkowice, near Wroclaw, soldiers and residents are laying sandbags near a bridge over the Olawa River. The Olawa River’s waters flow into the Oder, a major river that rises in the Oder Mountains in the Czech Republic and runs north through Poland to Germany.

Artur Piotrowski, the community leader of the town of Olawa, described the situation as difficult. He told the Polish state news agency PAP that since Monday, two villages in a low-lying area have been flooded, and residents have refused to evacuate.

Thousands of Polish soldiers are actively involved in the response. They are evacuating people and animals, including dogs and horses, from flood-affected areas and distributing food and drinking water. On Wednesday, the army also announced on X that it had set up a field hospital in Nysa after evacuating patients from a local hospital earlier in the week.

Experts have been preparing for potential flood threats from the cresting Oder River in Opole, a city with around 130,000 residents, and Wroclaw, which has about 640,000 residents and experienced devastating flooding in 1997.

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