The weekend brought no respite for the thousands of people evacuated from their homes in last week’s devastating floods. Torrential rain and hailstorms swept through central and north Bohemia causing flash floods in places previously considered safe and complicating clean-up work in areas where water-levels had been receding.
Photo: CTK
Thunderstorms, torrential rain and high winds battered central and north Bohemia over the weekend bringing fresh misery to those waiting to return to their homes and flooding villages that escaped last week’s devastating floods. Firefighters and emergency crews were on call around the clock on Sunday pumping water from cellars and clearing roads as rainwater flooded villages from surrounding water-logged fields. The inhabitants of Běloky, a village north of Prague had to be evacuated in the night hours. The villagers were completely unprepared for the flood, with only a small stream in the vicinity.
Photo: CTK
Although the country’s two biggest rivers, the Vltava and the Elbe are slowly subsiding, smaller rivers and local streams are still swollen by fresh rain and at least five areas in north Bohemia remain on high flood alert in view of more rain predicted over the next 24 hours. 34.000 people in the regions remain without safe drinking water, relying on supplies delivered, and thousands of homes are still without electricity. In Prague the state of emergency was called off on Monday morning and life in the Czech capital is slowly returning to normal.
Photo: CTK
Meanwhile, hundreds of people in south Bohemia were able to make a first inspection of their flooded homes over the weekend, some approaching them in dinghies, others wading knee-deep in mud. They were assisted by fire-crews with high-power water pumps, soldiers dispatched to help out in individual villages, hundreds of volunteers, many of them from Moravia, the eastern part of the country which was spared, and even selected prisoners who are being allowed to take part in the clean-up operation under surveillance. Gradually bridges, roads and railways that were closed down in the floods are being re-opened and construction experts are assessing the state of buildings. Insurance companies say they have registered close to 100,000 insurance claims and more are coming in daily.
Petr Nečas, photo: CTK
Eight days after the 2013 floods hit, the country is slowly recovering and taking stock. Eleven lives were lost in the floods and the initial damage estimate is being put at 7.5 billion crowns. People whose homes have been ruined say it will take them on average six months to a year to get them back in shape. NGOs are helping socially weaker and elderly inhabitants cope, both financially and by providing volunteers for heavy manual work. And as water levels recede there is an ongoing debate regarding the very real threat of future floods. Since 2007 governments have invested a total of 15 billion crowns into anti-flood measures and barriers and Prime Minister Petr Nečas has now called for a more responsible approach from local governments as regards permits issued for housing construction. According to a flood zone map issued shortly after the 2002 floods – the worst in the country’s modern history – there are now sixty thousand inhabited houses in high risk areas, located virtually along riverbanks. The homes are hard to insure and consequently hard to sell, but the message to their owners is that it might be a bigger loss to stay put than to move to a location where they will be better able to protect their property in future years.
