Storm Boris, which continues to ravage central Europe, has claimed three more lives in Austria and Poland. The body of a “81 year old woman” was found in his flooded home on Tuesday, September 17, police in Lower Austria announced, bringing the death toll in the country to five. Polish police announced Tuesday that they had found two new victims, reporting six people in total. “whose death could have been due to drowning.”
Storm Boris has killed at least 21 people in Central and Eastern Europe: in addition to five victims in Austria and six in Poland, Romania recorded seven deaths and the Czech Republic three, as well as eight missing.
Although the weather situation seems to be improving in several places, the ground is still saturated and rivers are overflowing. Authorities are urging the population to take extreme precautions. In Austria, when the sun returns, in twenty-six villages still cut off from the outside world, “We discovered the magnitude of the disaster”reports regional governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner.
33,000 interventions have been carried out since torrential rain and strong winds began on Friday. In Vienna, as well as all the city’s parks, four metro lines remain partially closed due to possible falling trees.
“Historic” floods
In the Czech Republic, just over sixty thousand households are still without electricity, mainly in the northeast. The country’s largest retention basin, the Rozmberk pond, is flooded. According to experts, this flood promises to be the worst the region has experienced since the 2002 floods that affected Prague, Dresden and Vienna.
Studies are expected in the coming months to determine whether the flooding is linked to climate change, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Tuesday, as teams have been on the ground in recent days.
But “When we look closely, we see that these types of events have increased in recent years. (…) in a Europe that has warmed at a much faster rate than the rest of the world”explained Andreas von Weissenberg, regional head of disasters, climate and crises for the International Federation, during the UN’s regular press briefing. “These floods have been described as historic, and that is true, but climate change is shaking things up and we will soon be able to talk about an annual rate”he warned, calling for more funds to be allocated to the fight against climate change.
