Polish soldiers battle floods as 49 die

Monday, July 21 1997

Polish soldiers battle floods as 49 die

DPA

WARSAW, July 20: Heavy rain in southern Poland and the Czech Republic put fresh strain today on embankments along the Oder-Neisse river system as thousands of soldiers struggled to block flood waters with sandbags.

Further down the Oder Valley, a river crest from rains a week ago threatened farmlands and small towns in the German state of Brandenburg and the Polish districts on the right bank.

Other river systems in Central Europe were also in spate, with rain in Bavaria cutting off cavers in the Alps near Berchtesgaden.

Police were preparing a rescue mission into the cave, the Salzgrabenhoehle, where 16 teachers and two guides have not been heard from since Friday. Speleologists said their way out had probably been cut off by raging underground rivers.

Items of the pot-holers' clothing were found at the entrance of cave at 1,000 metres' altitude near the town of Schoenau.

In Poland's Walbrzych district, the height of many streams triggered an alert and 1,600 people in various towns were evacuated from their homes. Villages were also cleared in the neisse valley in Legnica district.

Warsaw has 45,000 soldiers in the area laying sandbags and reinforcing sodden dykes.

The last two weeks of flooding have led to 49 deaths in Poland and 46 deaths in the Czech Republic.

The Czech news agency CTK said the latest rain had pushed the headwaters of the Oder to the same level at Ostrava as two weeks ago at the height of the first bout of flooding.

Oder tributaries that were badly flooded included the Opava and the Morav.Overnight 250 persons were evacuated in the Jesenik area because of the swollen Bela, another tributary, according to sources.

In Brandenburg state, the German authorities appealed to residents to help reinforce embankments along the Oder which reached its highest level this year at mid-morning but had not breached any dykes on the German side.

Some flooding was expected in Passau, at the confluence of the Inn and Ilz rivers with the Danube. Officials said the waters were approaching `level three', meaning some houses and streets would be under water. Passau has a long history of floods.