The worst flooding to strike Poland (click here) in more than a decade continued on its destructive path on Tuesday, leaving behind it apocalyptic scenes and 15 dead. Much of the flooding has been centered on the Oder and Vistula rivers, and the flood surge is expected to reach Germany later this week as it pushes north towards the border.
Flooding on Poland's Vistula River northwest of Warsaw, which experienced some of the heaviest damage over the weekend, continued to intensify on Monday. The situation is "worse than expected," Polish Interior Minister Jerzy Miller told reporters. After the banks burst on the river near the city of Plock, around 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Warsaw, 18 communities had to be evacuated. And the Polish media is reporting that the Vistula had flooded an area of around 8,000 hectares (around 20,000 acres), including 23 towns and villages.
In order to protect other towns, Polish authorities on Monday blew up dikes at several locations, news channel TVN24 reported. The authorities are hoping that these measures will lead the Vistula to flow back into its river bed.
Around 4,000 people and thousands of animals were evacuated. But officials on Monday worried that thousands more living in the towns of Gabin and Slubice on the border with Germany could be at risk....Emergency workers inspect a railway bridge destroyed by floods from the Poprad River near Nowy Sacz, Poland
