Floodwaters inundated Prague for the
second time in 11 years as storms blanketing central Europe
disrupted river traffic from the Rhine to the Danube, leaving at
least six dead and driving thousands of people from their homes.

Rescue workers struggled to protect the capital’s subway,
shops and apartments near the Vltava river, which breached its
banks in some areas and will crest today. Germany suffered from
the heaviest deluge in more than 50 years that put parts of the
city of Passau underwater. Vienna was bracing for more rainfall
today as the Danube rose to the highest in a decade.

Authorities are striving to cope with flooding similar to
2002, when high water in western Bohemia and Austria spread to
Germany and costs insurers billions of dollars in damage claims.
Rhine River traffic was closed today upstream of Koblenz,
Germany, hindering the transport of oil and other commodities.
About 5,000 Prague residents are without power and CEZ AS, the
biggest Czech power utility, cut off supply to another 4,000
outside the city.

“It will take two or three days for all the rivers to
crest, so the risk still endures,” Petr Dvorak, a spokesman for
the Czech state weather service, said by phone.

Rains in Bohemia, which borders Germany and Austria, will
ease today and end by midweek, the Czech weather forecasting
service said. An additional 15 millimeters (two-thirds of an
inch) is expected today, after more than twice that amount
pounded the country yesterday.

Rising Levels

The Vltava and other rivers continue to swell. Prague’s
river will reach the highest water level this afternoon as
swollen tributaries feed into Vltava, river authority
spokeswoman Michaela Pohunkova said by phone today.
There’s no forecast yet as to when the water level may start to
decline.

Hundreds of Prague residents were told to leave their homes
in two suburbs south of the city center and a downtown hospital
was evacuated. All grammar schools in the downtown area were
shuttered and the city closed the underground Metro system in
the center and shut off the historic Charles Bridge to foot
traffic.

In Germany to the north and west, states of emergency were
declared, evacuations ordered and soldiers deployed in the
states of Bavaria, Thuringia and Saxony. Water levels for the
Danube exceeded the record 12.20 meters measured in 1954, Stefan
Zoller, a spokesman of the Bavarian state environment ministry
said.

“We expect peak levels at midday,” Zoller said.

More Rain

Germany’s national meteorological service Deutscher
Wetterdienst expected further heavy rainfall between Saxony in
the east of the country and the Bavarian Alps in the south
today.

The water level of the Rhine River, an important inland
navigation route, rose to the highest level since at least 2006
near the town of Kaub in western Germany, according to data from
the German Federal Institute of Hydrology.

An unidentified woman and a man died yesterday in
Trebenice, a village some 30 kilometers outside of Prague, when
water seepage undermined the foundation of a summer cottage,
causing the wooden building to collapse over them, fire brigade
spokeswoman Nicole Zaoralova said by phone. Three others have
perished, according to Zaoralova, who didn’t immediately have
details of the incidents.

Another man was found dead in the Salzburg province of
Austria after landslides and three others are missing, a
government official said. The railroad connection between Vienna
and Salzburg was partially shut down after floods damaged the
tracks.

Expected Damage

While the situation in the western part of the country has
eased since yesterday, the Danube is expected to swell in lower
Austria to the levels of the 2002 flood that caused about 3
billion euros ($4 billion) in damage. Heavy rainfall will end
today and tomorrow, according to the national weather
forecasting service.

“It is still getting worse,” Austrian Vice Chancellor
Michael Spindelegger told journalists today. The flood along the
Danube will probably reach its peak on Tuesday, he said.

Downriver on the Danube, Bratislava, the Slovak capital, is
setting up metal barriers along the riverside promenade.
Budapest mayor Istvan Tarlos ordered a second-stage alert as the
Danube’s water level is expected to be as high as the record set
in 2002, the mayor’s office said in an e-mailed statement today.

In Prague, the lower half of the Prague Zoo, where the 2002
floods killed animals including an elephant that was trapped in
a pen as water rushed in, was closed. Workers transported
animals, including gorillas and tigers to higher ground.

To contact the reporters on this story:
James M. Gomez in Prague at
jagomez@bloomberg.net;
Lenka Ponikelska in Prague at
lponikelska1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James M. Gomez at
jagomez@bloomberg.net