PRAGUE, Sept 13 (Askume) – Prague stepped up flood protection measures in the city’s historic centre on Friday and Czech Republic forecasters issued a warning for the rest of the country, including the capital, because of the most extreme rainfall in Prague more than 20 years ago.
Heavy rain has been falling across much of the eastern Czech Republic since Thursday, with the worst-affected areas expected to receive more than a third of their annual rainfall in the four days until Sunday.
Similar weather is expected in the coming days across central Europe, including southern Germany and parts of Austria, Poland and Slovakia.
“The data shows that we are facing uncomfortable days,” Czech Prime Minister Peter Fiala said in a televised briefing after a crisis committee meeting. He added that in some places water levels could be so high that flooding could occur, which happens on average every 100 years or more.
“We are taking all necessary measures to prevent damage to property and health.”
The highest risk warnings were issued on Friday for central and southwestern regions, including Prague, where floods in 2002 forced thousands to evacuate their homes, collapsed buildings and left the capital’s metro system submerged for months.
Prague, a city of 1.3 million people, has invested heavily in the construction of levees and other measures to avoid similar flooding.
Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda told Czech Television that water levels in the city, which lies on the Vltava River across the 14th-century Charles Bridge, were expected to peak on Saturday night.
“We are taking preventive measures and we believe that by initiating flood prevention measures now, the situation like 2002 will not happen again,” he said.
Water management authorities have begun emptying the reservoirs of the Vltava Dam upstream of Prague, as well as those on other rivers, to make way for the expected floods.
The heaviest rainfall is still expected in the east and north-east of the country, where the Elbe, Danube and Odra rivers flow into Germany, Slovakia and Poland, respectively.
The Czech soccer league canceled matches across the country and cities canceled cultural events. Fire officials helped fill sandbags and install flood barriers in many towns.
Outdoor cultural events were cancelled in the southern Polish city of Wroclaw and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said emergency services would prepare for local flooding.
Slovak Environment Minister Tomas Taraba said the Morava River, which forms the Czech-Slovak and Austrian-Slovak border before reaching the Danube, was in danger of overflowing and that the Slovak government has begun diverting water from the river to uninhabited areas.
