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Czech floods turn deadly: report

File photo courtesy of AFP. Flood alerts declared in southern Poland
Polish authorities Wednesday declared a flood alert in the country's south following torrential rain that indundated a vast swathe of the country and cut off roads. Rescuers were busy pumping water out of hundreds of homes in the southern Upper Silesia region, particularly in the hard-hit city of Czestochowa, a statement by the local fire brigade said. Several rivers also overflowed in the Krakow and Rzeszow areas in the southeast, cutting off roads, television news reports said. But Krakow regional authorities quoted by the Polish PAP news agency declined to order evacuations, pointing to "moderately optimistic" weather forecasts. In June 2006 southern Poland was ravaged by a wave of flooding forcing the evacuation of hundreds of farms. In the summer of 1997 Poland was hit by the worst flood in living memory which claimed 54 lives, forcing the evacuation of more than 160,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damage in the southwest.
by Staff Writers
 Prague (AFP) June 24, 2009
 High floodwaters turned hundreds of homes into death-traps late Wednesday in the Czech Republic, with police fearing the toll could rise after reports that a woman drowned in the east of the country.

"Some people are facing a direct threat. They have been trapped in their houses," said regional police spokesman Ivo Mitacek, the CTK news agency reported.

"We have saved several lives -- of people trapped in cars on flooded roads. We have also rescued several people from houses," he added.

Hundreds of houses were flooded and dozens of people were evacuated in a region which was hit by devastating floods in 1997 that claimed almost 50 lives.

The woman drowned in a flooded river as heavy rains fell. "I don't know her identity. I can only confirm she has drowned," regional ambulance spokesman Lukas Humpl was quoted as saying.

He added that the ambulance car whose doctors tried to resuscitate the woman became stuck in the flood and could not move from the spot.

The floods had also prevented doctors from getting to a woman who was giving birth, he said.

The floods closed several roads and people in some towns are using boats to move around their places, the public-service Czech Television said in a newscast.

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SHAKE AND BLOW
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