By Barbara Erling
WROCLAW, Poland (Reuters) – Poland’s third-largest city Wroclaw was bracing for peaking flood waters on Thursday, with early indications its defences were holding firm, after the worst floods in at least two decades ravaged central Europe this week.
The flood wave that has inundated the Polish-Czech border region since the weekend reached Wroclaw overnight, but there were no signs of serious damage initially.
“It is too early to announce that the flood in Wroclaw has been overcome,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said during a meeting with a crisis team.
“I would prefer that we hold on nervously and try to guess… the increase in the state of rivers as accurately as possible.”
Agnieszka Popow-Wozniak, 44, an infertility clinic employee who had cycled through the city, told Reuters the situation seems to be better than expected.
“There is no flooding in the city centre at the moment (…) The recreational beaches are flooded, but I think we all expected it, and I think for now everything looks optimistic.”
The army said 16,000 soldiers were helping out in the region, alongside police and thousands of volunteers.
Tusk was preparing to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other leaders of flood-hit central European states on Thursday after the rains left a trail of destruction from Romania to Poland.
At least 24 people have died, with five dead in the Czech Republic, seven in Romania, seven in Poland, and five in Austria.
The deluge has spread mud and debris throughout towns, destroyed bridges, submerged cars and left authorities and households with a bill for damages that will run into billions of dollars.
Von der Leyen is due to visit Wroclaw on Thursday afternoon to meet Tusk and the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria to discuss aid for the region.
The Czech finance minister has said damage in the country would run into the billions of euros.
In Hungary, towns were dealing with the rising Danube River, and Prime Minister Victor Orban said the water level in Budapest was expected to peak on Saturday afternoon or evening, but that it will be lower than record levels seen in 2013.
“Hungary will do it, we will mount a successful defence against this flood as well,” he said in a statement late on Wednesday.
FAKE SOLDIER
Tusk also warned against the spread of false information about the floods, as Polish secret services searched for a person dressed in a soldier’s uniform who had appeared on the flood embankments and warned the public the defences would be blown up.
“This man is driving a car with false registration numbers, so this is no longer fun, but serious issues,” the prime minister said.
“No one has any intention of blowing anything up anywhere. Please do not believe it and immediately notify the police and the army. We will eliminate this type of behaviour with the help of the Internal Security Agency.”
(Reporting by Barbara Erling in Wroclaw, Pawel Florkiewicz and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw, Kristina Than in Budapest, Jason Hovet in Prague)
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