POLAND: SEVERAL VILLAGES IN THE ZIELONA GORA PROVINCE OF POLAND ENGULFED BY A FRESH WAVE OF FLOODS

Record ID: 646365

  • Title: POLAND: SEVERAL VILLAGES IN THE ZIELONA GORA PROVINCE OF POLAND ENGULFED BY A FRESH WAVE OF FLOODS
  • Date: 19th July 1997
  • Summary: LASKI, POLAND (JULY 19, 1997) (RTV - AVAILABLE ALL) 1. LV SWOLLEN RIVER ODER 0.05 2. LV/SLV PEOPLE FILLING BAGS WITH SAND TO HOLD BACK FLOOD WATER (4 SHOTS) 0.38 3. LV TRAFFIC DRIVING ACROSS CHANNEL OF WATER RUNNING DOWN STREET 0.50 4. SV WOMAN WALKING THROUGH FLOOD WATER CARRYING A DOG 0.54 5. LV OF SANDBAGS AND P
  • Embargoed: 3rd August 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ZIELONA GORA REGION, POLAND
  • City:
  • Country: Poland
  • Reuters ID: LVADXL35SUDAWTYNQ6PUYCO0I6PO
  • Story Text: Several villages in the Zielona Gora province of Poland were told to evacuate on Saturday after a dyke broke. It was latest in a series of catastrophes caused by torrential downpours in the region.

    Weary people in southwest Poland feared being engulfed by a fresh wave of floods on Sunday (July 20) after two days of steady rain raised river levels dangerously high.

    Some areas were already being plunged back under water after disastrous flooding earlier this month killed 49 people, inundated a thousand towns and villages and swamped 5,000 sq km of land.

    In the town of Laski exhausted citizens, instead of starting to rebuild their shattered lives, were constructing sandbag barriers and repairing damaged dykes against a fresh onslaught.

    A new alert was declared along the Odra river, which swept flood water north after rains about two weeks ago.

    Nearby Nowa Sol has been flooded for three days - town resident Bogdan Olechnik he had never imagined such a disaster would hit the area; there was no electricity and no help was being received.

    Public television's late Saturday weather forecast predicted a day of rain across most of Poland on Sunday, but forecasters said there would not be a full rerun of the earlier disaster.

    President Aleksander Kwasniewski, emerging from a meeting of Poland's flood crisis committee, said the current persistent rain was not as heavy as earlier feared and endangered communities were now better prepared.

    The government, accused by the opposition of doing too little too slowly at the start of the flooding, was flinging resources and personnel, including around 45,000 troops and 80 helicopters, into relief and rescue efforts.


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