German authorities scrambled yesterday to evacuate thousands of people from cities on the river Elbe as record floods appeared to peak yesterday in the eastern architectural jewel of Dresden.
Elsewhere in flood-ravaged central Europe, where at least 91 people have died in a week in Germany, Russia, Austria and the Czech Republic, Budapest became the next capital city under threat with Hungarian officials saying flood levels were due to peak there on today or tomorrow.
As a wave of floodwater headed down the Elbe in Germany, thousands were evacuated from the heavily industrial city of Bitterfeld amid fears of an environmental disaster if water from a burst dam reached nearby chemical plants.
Emergency workers toiled in the city to build temporary defenses with sandbags.
About 8,000 people around the German town of Torgau had to abandon their homes and several thousand more were set to be evacuated around the central city of Magdeburg, officials said.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is to attend a summit with leaders from the other flood-stricken states of Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in Berlin today.
As recent torrential rains swelled the Danube river, its level in Budapest rose inexorably, but Hungarian officials predicted the city's 10m defenses would be high enough.
They expressed cautious optimism even though Danube water levels have broken all-time records on the upper section of Europe's largest inland shipping route.
After a steady and dangerous rise all week on the Elbe in Germany, floods in Dresden appeared to have reached their peak, although volunteers continued to place sandbags across the baroque city. Historic buildings in the center were inundated.
"We hope that the high point has been reached but we can't be sure," said Kai Schulz, spokesman for the Dresden city government.
The weather service forecast light rain yesterday, but nowhere near the levels earlier in the week that caused record floods in Prague, Dresden and other cultural treasures of Central Europe.
Although many parts of Dresden remained dry, the historic inner city rebuilt after the World War II firebombing -- including architectural landmarks like the Zwinger Palace, the Semper Opera and the Royal Palace -- was flooded.
A total of 5,000 people fought the floods in Dresden, where helicopters clatter daily overhead, sirens echo and pumps drone with orange and red hoses snaking out of basements. "We're pumping out slowly but the Elbe keeps giving back," one firefighter near the Semper Opera said.
Regions along Europe's flooded rivers face a multi-billion-euro clean-up. In the Czech capital Prague, some residents returned home as waters retreated there, but flooding continued elsewhere in the country.
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