Volunteers and emergency workers in Wroclaw, Poland, are scrambling to secure river banks as Central Europe tallies the devastation caused by floods from Storm Boris, which has claimed the lives of at least 21 people. The deluge has wreaked havoc from Romania to Poland, with areas on the Czech-Polish border particularly hard hit by gushing, debris-filled rivers. Thousands of households in Czech and Poland are without power or freshwater, while in Wroclaw, volunteers are helping to pile up sandbags in preparation for cresting rivers.
In neighboring Czech Republic, Governor Josef Belica has reported 15,000 evacuations in the Moravia-Silesia region, with aid being delivered by helicopters to areas cut off by floodwaters. Meanwhile, in Hungary, mobile dams have been set up to limit flooding from the Danube, while Budapest is bracing for record water levels and has closed a popular recreational island.
Slovakia is also facing damages estimated at 20 million euros from the floods, with Environment Minister Tomas Taraba reporting that water levels on the Danube are beginning to recede. Experts are attributing the increase in extreme weather events like these floods to climate change caused by human activities. Andreas von Weissenberg of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has cautioned that while these floods may be labeled as historic, climate change could continue to impact weather patterns in unpredictable ways.
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