Usti nad Labem braces as swollen River Elbe reaches critical level

Towns and villages in north Bohemia were bracing themselves for flooding on Saturday, after heavy rain and melting snow caused rivers to burst their banks. As water levels slowly return to normal in the rest of the country, the northern city of Usti nad Labem was preparing for a wave of floodwater from the swollen river Elbe. Officials are also closely monitoring the River Vltava in Prague, where villages on the outskirts of the city have already been flooded. There has also been isolated flooding in southern and western Bohemia. The worst floods in five hundred years devastated large areas of the Czech Republic in August, leaving more than a dozen people dead and causing several billion dollars of damage.