VIDEOS. The impressive images of the damage after the passage of storm Boris which left at least 8 dead in Europe

At least eight people lost their lives in Central Europe this weekend during Storm Boris.

Torrential rains, spectacular floods, evacuations by the thousands: storm Boris is wreaking havoc in central and eastern Europe, and its toll has risen to at least eight dead and several missing. Romania has paid the heaviest price, but all countries in the region have been hit hard, from Poland to Slovakia.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed in a message on X her “solidarity with all those affected by the devastating floods” and said that the EU was “ready to provide his support".

After the death of four people in Romania this Saturday, September 14, the toll rose this Sunday, September 15 with two other victims found dead and one missing in the south-east of the country, a person drowned in Poland and a firefighter died during an intervention in Austria. In addition, four people are missing in the Czech Republic.

The impressive images taken by AFP photographers show entire neighborhoods submerged, residents rescued with water up to their armpits in Romania, sand dikes to limit the rising waters. The storm caused massive power outages, disruptions to the transportation network and mass evacuations of residents everywhere.

Water has “everything taken"

In Pechea, located in the Romanian province of Galati, Sofia Basalic, 60, lost everything in the waves.“The water came into the house, it tore down the walls, everything. It took the chickens, the rabbits. It took the stove, the washing machine, the refrigerator, I have nothing left,” she told AFP. In the Czech town of Opava or in Vienna, Austria, onlookers gathered to watch the rivers rise.

“For many residents, these hours will remain the worst of their lives,” said Johanna Mikl-Leitner, governor of Lower Austria (northeast), who has asked for help from the army

In the Polish town of Glucholazy, on the Polish-Czech border, the flooded river overflowed the dikes and damaged a bridge, flooding the town centre and neighbouring neighbourhoods. “We're sinking”, the mayor called on residents to leave the threatened areas, while the basements of the town's hospital were under water. water.

Among those who have sought refuge in a school, Marek Pogoda, 48, is relieved to be safe. “Against wind and rain, man cannot prevail. Fire, in the limit, can be extinguished. The most important thing is that we are alive, the rest does not matter,” he said.

With the support of the army and helicopters, firefighters have rescued thousands of people in distress and operations continue on both sides of the border. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called on the population to “not refuse” to be evacuated. He also said he had received a "moving" offer of help from Ukraine, which, despite the war on its soil, proposed on Sunday sending a hundred rescuers.

Vienna Metro partially closed

Events have been cancelled everywhere, including football matches, and transport has been severely affected. Rail traffic between Poland and the Czech Republic has been cut off, as have some connections in Austria.

Four lines of the Vienna metro, where six people were injured by falling branches or trees, have been partially closed, with the network threatened by the Wien River and the Danube Canal running through the capital. A motorway was also closed at the entrance to the city. The region of the country worst hit by the storm, Lower Austria, has been classified as a natural disaster zone. With 1.72 million inhabitants, it is the most populous city in the country after Vienna.

Almost 5,000 interventions took place overnight in Lower Austria, where residents are still trapped. In some places, it fell four times more than in a normal September. The zoo in the Slovak capital has had to move some animals to safe locations, according to an official at the facility.

Flooding from heavy rains is expected to increase in central and western Europe as the world faces an average of 1.5 °C of warming, IPCC climate experts said in a 2022 report.

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