Death toll climbs as rain, flooding batter Central Europe

At least eight people were confirmed dead in devastating floods in Czechia, Poland and Romania on Sunday, while authorities downstream on the Danube River ordered evacuations in anticipation of further flooding.

Six people lost their lives in eastern Romania and one person died in Poland. In Austria, a firefighter died while responding to the floods there, Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler wrote on X on Sunday.

Poland and the Czech Republic ordered evacuations from several flooded towns, while roads were closed and events canceled. Authorities declared the province surrounding Vienna a disaster area, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, in Slovakia, evacuations began in the western Záhorie region on the Czech border, in the hilly Kysuce region on the Polish border, and in parts of the capital Bratislava, which lies at the confluence of the Danube and Morava rivers.

Jakub Kovačič, a resident of the low-lying Devinská Nová Ves suburb of Bratislava, reported that locals had begun fleeing their homes in motorboats. “The water drowned our chickens, but we managed to save the rabbits,” he told the SME local daily.

The heavy rains moved over Central Europe from Italy in a phenomenon known as the Genoa low — a low pressure area that typically forms near the northern Italian city. The downpours led to increased runoff into the region’s rivers, some of them overflowing dams and embankments, washing away bridges and inundating towns.

As happened in 1997, the last time Central Europe saw grave flooding, the Czech Republic and Upper Austria were the first affected, due to the direction of flow of the Danube and Morava rivers. Further downstream, Slovakia and Hungary expect the water level in the Danube to peak at 930 centimeters by Tuesday from 750 cm Sunday.

Slovakia had seen 40 cm of rain from the storm by late weekend, while train service between Bratislava and Vienna was suspended indefinitely on Sunday evening.

The Polish government deployed the army to the areas most affected in scenes similar to previous catastrophic floods in 1997 and 2010. The authorities hoped the infrastructure built since then would reduce the expected surge of the Oder, Poland’s second-largest river flowing through Wrocław, a city of nearly 700,000.

Facing criticism from the opposition, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X: “Now, all that matters is help for people threatened by flooding and state action. Those who can, let them help, those who can’t, let them not hinder. Politics must give way to solidarity.”

Tusk received flak earlier last week after saying that “forecasts aren’t overly alarming,” a statement he had to fine-tune in the following days after it became clear that some locations would receive the equivalent of a few months’ precipitation in just four days.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU “stands ready to support” areas hit by the flooding. “Heartfelt solidarity with all affected by the devastating floods in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia,” she said in a post on X on Sunday.

Forecasts are for the adverse weather to gradually ease by Tuesday.

This article has been updated.