- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ |
Fear and tears as Storm Boris wrecks Czech town
Marek Prochazka will turn 50 on Wednesday, but he won't be celebrating, with his home town in the Czech Republic once again ravaged by floods.
The town of Krnov on the border with Poland was hit by a devastating wave of stormwater Sunday as the Opava and Opavice rivers rose to record levels.
Picking his way between cobblestones ripped from a nearby historic street that are now strewn across the main square, Prochazka said the deluge brought by Storm Boris was even worse than the murderous 1997 flood that also hit the town of 23,000 people.
That left 50 dead across mostly the east of the Central European country, and caused 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) of damage.
"It's a disaster," Prochazka told AFP as he carried a bucket of drinking water from a tank, with supplies of clean water hit.
"Officials said 80 percent of Krnov was under water. We were trapped at home so we could not see anything except the stream on our street."
The town, with its neat historic churches and castle, is at the confluence of the two rivers, so was particularly vulnerable to the rising waters.
Its centre resembled a battlefield Monday as people walked among the mud and debris, negotiating newly-formed pools and potholes gouged out by the floodwaters.
- 'Nightmare' -
In a nearby housing estate, pensioner Eliska Cokreska had been walking around with the help of sticks to survey the damage.
"I went as far as the castle garden, it's a disaster. All pavements are destroyed, everything's toppled here, everything's broken... it's all destroyed, it's a nightmare," she told AFP.
"It will take ages to put everything right."
The Krnov rivers rose quickly from the heavy rainfall Storm Boris brought to Central Europe over the weekend.
They both peaked on Sunday and then retreated fast to reveal the damage for Monday's early risers.
"Sunday was the worst, water was coming from all sides, you didn't know where it was coming from," said Cokreska.
"We've had enough -- we had one flood (in 1997) and now another," she added.
A mark on a house in the city centre and fresh water stains suggested that Sunday's fkood reached about 30 centimetres (one foot) higher than in 1997.
"I was just telling myself, 'Oh God, make it pass'," said Cokreska.
- 'Lost for words' -
Officials said on Monday that one person died and eight are missing across the Czech Republic in the wake of the storm.
Road and railway traffic was disrupted across the country and tens of thousands of households are still without power, especially in the northeast which was hit the hardest.
The rain resumed on Monday and was expected to last until Wednesday in some areas.
Visibly moved, Krnov councillor Marketa Juroskova Bezrucova said she was "stressed, sad and gutted".
"I was trapped at home, on the fifth floor but between the two rivers, thinking of our beautiful city," she added.
"We have been doing it up and we were on track to make it really beautiful and accessible for tourists," she said.
She paused and tried to compose herself before her emotions got the better of her.
"I'm just lost for words," she said as the tears welled up.
O.Lorenz--BTB