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Thousands run from Prague as floods overwhelm Europe

Firefighters frantically stacked sandbags and erected barriers yesterday to hold back the Vltava River from downtown Prague and 40,000 Czechs fled their homes as torrential rains unleashed the worst flooding in central and eastern Europe in decades.

Water has already engulfed Kampa island, flooding the Hapsburg-era palaces and villas that make up that section of Prague's Old Town.

In Salzburg, Austria, more than 1,000 buildings were under water, Austrian radio reported.

The death toll across Europe rose to at least 83, including at least 58 deaths in Russia, where thousands of people vacationing on the Black Sea were ambushed by flood waters.

As many as 4,000 tourists were still trapped in Shirokaya Balka, a scenic coastal village that was devastated by the flooding, the Interfax news agency reported.

Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla declared a state of emergency and deployed 1,200 soldiers to the capital. At least seven Czechs have died in 10 days of flooding.

In Austria, rain fell overnight, bringing dams in villages west of the Austrian capital to their breaking point.

The menacing Danube punched through dams in the town of Ybbs in Lower Austria Province. The floods claimed their fourth casualty in Austria yesterday when a 61-year-old firefighter drowned after his car skidded off a road into a flooded field.

In Germany, where firefighters and soldiers were stacking sandbags to reinforce strained river banks, a 71-year-old man drowned Monday night in flooding in Dresden and German authorities said three other people were missing.

In Romania, where four people have died from the flooding, a brief but violent storm struck several towns near the Danube, killing three more people, officials said yesterday.
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