Czech authorities on flood alert
Rivers swollen by rain and melting snow flooded roads and prompted evacuations in the Czech Republic today amid flood alerts throughout the country.
The greatest danger appeared to be outside the capital, Prague, which last summer suffered the worst flooding in 175 years.
Though waters rose overnight on the Vltava River, authorities said any risk to the city had abated.
Emergency workers focused, meanwhile, on erecting sandbag barriers and other flood safety measures in the town of Usti nad Labem, 60 miles north west of Prague. The water level in the Elbe river reached 22.2 feet and was expected to reach 24.7 feet tomorrow Sunday, the news agency CTK said.
Rising water on the river, which is normally about 6.6 feet high, also swamped a major road.
Other parts of the country also reported rising water and as many as 40 roads were swamped.
Authorities evacuated all 220 residents of the village of Vestec, 30 miles east of Prague, after the Mrlina river washed over its banks.
People also were on alert along the Mze river, 75 miles south west of Prague, where water was expected to reach levels similar to those in the disastrous floods that hit the country last August, CTK said.
In Prague, authorities continued to ban boats on the Vltava and closed the lower part of the river’s embankment.
A pedestrian tunnel that connects the river promenade to the Old Town was sealed by metal blocks.
The Czech Republic is still struggling to recover from the disastrous floods that hit the central European country last August, causing damage estimated at hundreds of millions of pounds.
