This is beginning to sound like the fable of Noah’s Ark and the flood as described in the Bible. Unfortunately, while the flood in the Bible was make-believe, these floods that are occurring across parts of Asia and Europe are not, and they are destroying the lives of thousands upon thousands of people. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press
PRAGUE (AFP) – Eight people died and thousands were evacuated amid disrupted traffic and power outages as floods hit parts of central Europe following heavy rainfall on Saturday, rescuers said.
Four people drowned in the Czech Republic, three in Germany and one in Poland as torrential rain raised water levels in the area where the three countries border each other.
“An ambulance doctor has confirmed the fourth victim of the floods,” a northern Czech fire brigade said on its website as the floods swept the district of Liberec, a city about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Prague.
“One man drowned in a brook. Firemen and local people pulled him out, but he didn’t breathe… and rescuers failed to bring him back to life,” Iva Michalickova, spokeswoman for the fire brigade, told AFP.
Three other Czechs were missing on Saturday evening, the police said, while forecasters predicted the heavy rain would last until midnight on Saturday.
Across the border in the Polish town of Bogatynia, “one person died either of drowning or under the debris of a house,” town hall spokeswoman Dagmara Turek-Samol was quoted as saying by the Polish PAP agency.
“At least 2,000 people had to be evacuated. Several houses were destroyed,” Bogatynia mayor Andrzej Grzmielewicz told the TVN24 private TV channel, describing the situation as “dramatic.”
And three people drowned in a cellar in Neunkirchen near Chemnitz in southeast Germany, police said after rescuers had found the victims in the basement of their building where they had been caught by the floods.
Some towns and villages in the Czech Republic and Poland were completely cut off by the water, and many people were forced to leave their homes by helicopters as several dams and dikes in the area threatened to burst.
In Poland, storms and heavy rainfall have also flooded an underground station and many basements in Warsaw, including those of three hospitals.
In May and June this year, heavy flooding killed 22 people in Poland and six in the Czech Republic.
