Romania breached a major dike to divert floodwater threatening villages in the Danube delta, while Hungary evacuated thousands of people as swollen rivers spread more havoc across eastern Europe on Friday.
Almost 8,000 people have fled their homes in the Balkans. Further north in Hungary, authorities evacuated 4,500 more from three towns near the confluence of the Tisza and Koros rivers.
Authorities in Romania, the worst-hit country, tore a 40-metre (124-ft) gap in a dike on its coast to let Danube waters - swollen by heavy rains and melting snow - flow into the Black Sea and ease pressure on hundreds living nearby.
"Within hours, the level of water surrounding the villages of Crisan, Caraorman, Sfantu Gheorghe and the town of Sulina should fall by around 20 centimetres," Beatrice Popescu of the Environment Ministry told Reuters. The dike was built to retain water in the ecologically sensitive delta during periods of drought.
Another 4,000 people from Rast, a poor village in south-western Romania, spent their fourth night in schools, hospitals, tents or with relatives in higher-lying areas.
The army and volunteers tried to ease hardship with hot meals and preparations for mass and improvised celebrations ahead of Sunday's Orthodox Easter, said Mihaela Mocanu, a spokeswoman in Dolj county. Waters from the Danube, Europe's second-longest river, have flooded over 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) of land in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. In Hungary, another 138,000 are submerged by floodwater in various rivers.
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