Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged 100 million euros in emergency aid for flood-ravaged areas on Tuesday, as surging waters that have claimed at least 11 lives and forced tens of thousands of evacuations across central Europe bore down toward Germany.
Heavy rains have turned vast regions into lakes, cut off villages, severed transport links and left historic city centres under muddy brown water. The inundations have also brought back dark memories of devastating floods that killed dozens 11 years ago.
The largest volumes of floodwater have travelled down two of Europe's great river systems: the Danube, which runs from Germany through Austria and central Europe into the Black Sea, and the Elbe, which flows from the Czech Republic through Germany into the North Sea.
Merkel travelled by helicopter over the flood zone and visited three impacted areas, starting in Passau, Bavaria, where the Danube meets two other rivers and peaked late Monday at 12.9 metres (42 feet), the highest level since 1501. The chancellor vowed the emergency cash would be disbursed in an unbureaucratic way because "what's important now is that the aid quickly reaches the people". The property damage in Passau alone was estimated at 20 million euros ($26 million) by the city mayor.
Some people have paddled canoes down flooded streets in Passau, where drinking water, power and phone services were cut. Elsewhere stranded residents were evacuated from their soggy homes by rescue personnel using inflatable boats. "The damage and the loss of income is a long-term matter. And that's why our support will not cease," said Merkel, who faces an election in less than four months and was later photographed helping fill sandbags.
Across the region, the official death toll rose to 11 as Czech emergency services recovered the body of a man from the swollen Male Labe river in the northern Krkonose mountain range, near the border with Poland. The deluge killed seven others in the Czech Republic, including a woman who was hit by an uprooted tree as she walked her dog. Two others died in Austria and one in Switzerland. Several more people were missing.
Across much of the swamped region, rail, road and river traffic links were cut, crops destroyed, schools and factories closed and hospitals evacuated. In Prague, the flood water hit its highest level on Tuesday after inundating the city centre, displacing more than 8,000 people and forcing the night-time evacuation of the city's zoo.
Tourists mingled with locals on Prague's bridges, taking pictures of the high water, sandbags in the doorways, anti-flood defences and the 14th-century Charles Bridge which remained closed to the public. Watching from another bridge, Jindrich, a man in his fifties willing to give only his first name, said the flood "looked better than in 2002" when 17 people died across the Czech Republic. "It has turned out quite okay." Prague has installed anti-flood walls along 17 kilometres (10.5 miles) of river front, said fire brigade spokeswoman Nicole Zaoralova.
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