Countries across Europe have been hit by deadly extreme weather conditions, with rivers threatening to burst their banks in Central Europe after torrential rain, and wildfires ravaging Portugal.
Seven people have died in Portugal since Sunday, including three firefighters whose vehicle caught fire on Tuesday (17). At least 17 people have been killed in what authorities called the worst floods to hit central and eastern Europe in decades.
The mayor of Nysa, Poland, has ordered the removal of all 44 thousand residents as water levels in the city’s river rose and threatened to cause more flooding in its neighborhoods.
Grzegorz Grochowski, from Nysa, told how rescue teams and residents hauled sandbags to the riverbank, working through the night and into the early hours of Tuesday morning to ensure it did not overflow.
“There was a human chain here, people were passing sandbags to each other,” Grochowski told Reuters on Tuesday. “The helicopter was also carrying sand in big bags and they were throwing it to reinforce the wall throughout the night until about 4 or 5 in the morning.”
Patients, including pregnant women, were evacuated from the town’s hospital after floodwaters forced it to close before all Nysa residents were told to leave. Only rescuers and those trying to stem the river’s flow remain.
Rains were expected to ease by Tuesday, but authorities warned that river levels would remain dangerously high and risk flooding low-lying urban areas.
The heaviest rains have moved into parts of northern and eastern Italy, where an orange rain alert is in force on Tuesday.
Along Poland’s border with the Czech Republic, emergency services carried out several rescues in the town of Ladek Zdrój after residents were trapped in their homes.
The floods impacted the length of the Czech-Polish border, extending as far as the city of Ostrava, where thousands of residents were without hot water on Monday (16). Operators of the region’s main heating plant ordered a complete shutdown.
Fires in Portugal
Wildfires in Portugal have forced authorities to close highways and roads, disrupting travel across the country, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.
Fires near six highways forced them to close, the ministry said, including the country’s main link between the capital Lisbon and its second-largest city Porto. In total, 19 major roads were cut due to the proximity of the flames.
More than 5,000 firefighters were battling wildfires on Tuesday as nearly two dozen major rural blazes were burning across the country, the Portuguese Civil Protection Agency said.
Civilians were evacuated from their homes and schools were also closed in some areas, the CNN Portugal, an affiliate of CNN this Tuesday, as much of the country remains under yellow alert for fire risk.
Huge columns of smoke from wildfires can be seen from space, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) said on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Portugal’s Civil Protection said the weather was hampering firefighting efforts as humidity overnight remained low.
Firefighters typically rely on cooler nighttime temperatures and higher humidity to help them fight fires, but dry weather conditions have caused the fires to spread further.
Robert Shackelford, from CNN Weather, contributed to this report.
This content was originally published in At least 7 people die after forest fires hit Portugal on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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