Several dead, missing as Storm Boris lashes Europe with heavy rain

Several people have died and several others are missing after Storm Boris lashed central and eastern Europe with torrential rain. A report by the news agency AFP on Sunday (Sept 15) said that since Thursday, swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have been hit by high winds and unusually fierce rainfall. 

Poland and southern Germany are expected to see more heavy rain. A report by BBC on Sunday said that more torrential downpours are in the forecast until at least the end of Monday.

> At least five people died and thousands of homes were damaged by flooding in eastern Romania which began Saturday. A report by the news agency Reuters said that tens of thousands of households were left without power.

> A total of eight counties in Romania have been affected due to the flooding. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu visited hard-hit Galati county, where four of the five people were found dead, about 5,000 homes were damaged and 25,000 were without power.

> “The priority is obviously to save lives. At this moment we have all the necessary logistics to intervene quickly,” Prime Minister Ciolacu said.

> On Sunday, one person drowned in southwest Poland while a firefighter in Austria tackling flooding was killed. Reuters reported that Some parts of the Czech Republic and Poland faced the worst flooding in almost three decades and a bridge collapsed in the historic Polish town of Glucholazy near the Czech border.

> Officials in Glucholazy in Poland’s Nysa county ordered evacuations on Sunday morning as the local river started to break its banks and the town was cut off from power supplies. Police announced plans for people trapped in flooded houses in Nysa County to be rescued by helicopter.

> In the Czech Republic, a quarter of a million homes were without power due to high winds and rain. Czech police said they were looking for three people who were in a car that fell into the river Staric.  

> In Hungary’s Budapest, officials raised forecasts for the Danube to rise in the second half of this week, to above 8.5 metres, nearing a record 8.91 metres seen in 2013.

(With inputs from agencies)