News

Water levels on the Vltava and Labe rivers, which became swollen last week after heavy rainfall, are continuing to fall. However, with storms and persistent rain due until Tuesday, the risk of flooding remains in some parts of Bohemia. Local authorities have been ordered to keep flood defences in place and there have been warnings that some places already inundated could be affected again, with the saturated terrain making flash floods a possibility.

At the same time, thousands of people evacuated last week have been returning home. Ten deaths were recorded in connection with last week’s floods and material damages have been put at billions of crowns.

Prague’s transport authority reopened all of the stations in the city’s metro system at 15:00 on Sunday. The metro’s operators had previously said they would open on Monday the remaining stations closed since the threat of flooding began last week. An official said the authority wished to accommodate people returning to the capital after the weekend. Flood-prevention barriers will remain in the vestibules of some stations.

Prime Minister Nečas says he believes agreement will be reached between President Miloš Zeman and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg over the appointment of ambassadors. Speaking on Sunday, Mr. Nečas said in the past compromises had been reached between the head of state, the PM and the foreign minister on naming envoys, adding that the dispute appeared trivial in the light of the flood situation.

Mr. Zeman and Mr. Schwarzenberg (who the former defeated in presidential elections) have been at loggerheads for some time over the president’s wish to see Livia Klausová, the wife of his predecessor, named ambassador to Bratislava, and Communist MEP Vladimír Remek made ambassador to Russia.

The Czech Republic’s Central Flood Commission has warned that more flooding may occur around the country as storms are forecast for the coming days. Speaking after a commission meeting on Saturday, Prime Minister Petr Nečas said that land was still saturated in many areas and further flooding could occur very quickly, perhaps in places that have just been inundated. He also said there was a danger of landslides. Almost a week after flooding began in several parts of Bohemia, Mr. Nečas said the good news was the country was functioning well. Nearly 20,000 people were evacuated last week and 10 people died, while material damage has been estimated in the billions of crowns.