Six people have died and thousands more have been evacuated this weekend as a storm bearing torrential rain sweeps through parts of Eastern and Central Europe.
In a statement, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis expressed condolences to the families of the dead. He said local officials were working to help those in affected areas.
Authorities in Lower Austria declared the province a disaster area, giving them expanded powers to order evacuations, according to local news outlets. Thousands of people in Poland and the Czech Republic have been evacuated, Reuters reported.
The storm, named Boris in parts of Europe, is expected to linger over the continent for days, bringing with it extreme weather. In the Austrian Alps, snow accumulated during September for the first time on record, and once-in-a-generation floods were forecast in other parts of the continent.
The storm brought “record cold, record early deep snow” to Austria, Scott Duncan, a meteorologist based in the United Kingdom, said on X.
Photos showed houses and cars submerged in towns and villages in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. Live feeds from mountains in Austria showed blankets of snow over buildings. The country’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, called the situation “very serious” Saturday morning and said almost all parts of the country have been affected by heavy rainfall or snowfall.
“The peak has not yet been reached and the coming days will be extremely difficult and challenging for the affected population and the emergency services,” Nehammer said on X.
In Romania this weekend, intense flooding wreaked havoc through the eastern county of Galati, where authorities sent 10 boats to rescue residents and ordered the Romanian gendarmerie to assist in evacuations. Residents in the county will also receive enough water and food for one week and can stay in temporary, modular homes, officials said.
Romania’s environment minister, Mircea Fechet, said in a statement Saturday that residents in the eastern counties had been left reeling after just a few hours of rainfall. He said that Romania’s emergency alert system, Ro-Alert, which sent messages overnight, had helped residents prepare.
Fechet told the AP that some areas were hit with 160 liters of rain per square meter, a volume of precipitation that is rare.
The heavy rainfall that began over Central Europe on Friday was expected to shift toward Eastern Europe this weekend, then drift west again toward the Mediterranean Sea at the beginning of the week.
The storm formed as cold Arctic air swept south through Europe and ran into warmer air. It is expected to linger in the region for days and will continue drawing upon moisture-filled air from the Mediterranean.
Ian Livingston contributed to this report.
