4 people found dead in eastern Romania as rainstorms leave hundreds stranded

BUCHAREST, Romania -- Four people in eastern Romania have been found dead after torrential storms dumped unprecedented rain, leaving hundreds stranded in flooded areas, emergency authorities said Saturday.

Rescue services scrambled to save people in the hard-hit eastern counties of Galati and Vaslui. The bodies of three older women and one man were found in four localities, the Department for Emergency Situations said.

Emergency authorities released video footage showing teams of rescuers evacuating people using small lifeboats through muddy waters and carrying some older people to safety.

Some of the most significant flood damage was concentrated in Galati where 5,000 households were affected. A Black Hawk helicopter was also deployed there to help with the search and rescue efforts.

The storms battered 19 localities in eight counties in Romania, with strong winds downing dozens of trees that damaged cars and blocked roads and traffic. Authorities sent text message alerts to residents to warn them of adverse weather as emergency services rushed to remove floodwaters from homes.

By 1 p.m. local time on Saturday, more than 250 people had been evacuated with the help of 700 interior ministry personnel deployed to affected communities, authorities said.

Romanian Environment Minister Mircea Fechet told The Associated Press that in some of the badly flooded areas, more than 160 liters (42 gallons) of rain fell per square meter (about 10.7 square feet), which he said is a rare occurrence.

“What we are trying to do right now is save as many lives as possible,” said the minister, who was on his way to Galati to assess the situation.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis offered his condolences to the victims' bereaved families, writing on Facebook: "We must continue to strengthen our capacity to anticipate extreme weather phenomena.”

“Severe floods that have affected a large part of the country have led to loss of lives and significant damage,” Iohannis said. “We are again dealing with the effects of climate change, which are increasingly present throughout the European continent, with dramatic consequences on people.”

The stormy weather comes as several central European nations anticipate severe flooding to hit the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, and Hungary over the weekend.

In the Czech Republic, river waters reached dangerously high levels in dozens of areas, prompting the authorities to evacuate hundreds of people, including from a hospital in the second-largest city of Brno, to escape raging floods. A 54-year-old man was missing, police said, after he fell in a flooded stream in the southeast of the country, while another three people were swept away in a car by a river in the northeast.

By Saturday evening, Czech authorities had declared the highest flood warnings in more than 70 areas across the country, and said that thousands more people should be prepared to be evacuated as the rains continued to slam down. The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute said such “extreme floods” in those regions only occur about once a century.

In neighboring Austria, authorities declared 24 villages in the northeast Lower Austria province “disaster zones” on Saturday afternoon and began evacuating residents from those areas.

“The coming hours will be the hours of truth for flood protection, for our emergency forces and numerous compatriots,” said the province’s state governor, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, adding that in one area “we expect challenges of historical dimensions.”

The torrential downpours have also caused a sharp rise in water levels on the Danube River in Austrian capital Vienna, where special flood relief channels were built in the 1970s and ’80s, and are likely to be tested over the weekend. The Kamp River, a tributary of the Danube, is also swelling because of the unprecedented weather event.

Heavy rain also hit Moldova on Saturday, where emergency workers pumped floodwater from dozens of peoples’ homes in several localities, and 13 localities in three districts suffered partial electricity outages, authorities said.

Meteorologists say a low-pressure system from northern Italy was predicted to dump heavy rainfall in most parts of the Czech Republic, including the capital and border regions with Austria and Germany in the south, and Poland in the north.

“We have to be ready for worst-case scenarios,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said after the government’s central crisis committee met. “A tough weekend is ahead of us.”

In Poland, dozens of people were evacuated as a precautionary measure on Saturday from two villages near the town of Nysa, in the Nysa River basin, after meteorologists warned of unprecedented rainfall. Some farms were flooded.

Water levels continued to rise in rain Saturday and some roads and streets in the cities of Krakow and Katowice were flooded, and water penetrated the basement of a hospital in Krakow though firefighters quickly pumped it out. Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said that “the worst is yet to come.”

Polish authorities appealed to residents on Friday to stock up on food and to prepare for power outages by charging power banks.

The weather change arrived following a hot start to September in the region, including in Romania. Scientists have documented Earth’s hottest summer, breaking a record set just a year ago.

A hotter atmosphere, driven by human-caused climate change, can lead to more intense rainfall.

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Stephen McGrath reported from Sighisoara. Karel Janicek in Prague; Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland; and Stephanie Liechtenstein in Vienna; contributed to this report.