Authorities in Romania and Bulgaria were working frantically on Monday to shore up flood defences after the Danube reached its highest levels for more than a century.
Emergency teams and soldiers were trying to prevent further flooding, after a weekend in which hundreds of people were forced to flee their homes. Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria were the worst hit.
Melting snow and steady rain have seen the Danube, which flows from Germany and Austria through the Balkans to the Black Sea, reach levels not seen since 1895. In Romania officials have taken the drastic step of deliberately flooding farmland and forested areas to protect towns.
Communities have been evacuated in parts of Serbia, including the town of Smederevo, 38km east of the capital, Belgrade. Here the Danube swamped a medieval fortress and railway line. Soldiers were eventually able to stop the waters with sandbags and soil.
Across Serbia the waters receded slightly on Monday, but are expected to peak in neighbouring Romania and Bulgaria over the next few days. The Romanian government representative in the badly hit county of Tulcea told Reuters: ”We are on alert and doing what we can to prevent damage and to save lives.”
So far, more than 730 Romanians have left their homes, with the floods inundating at least 500 houses. There are plans to flood a further 26 000ha of land on the Danube’s northern bank this week.
In the village of Negoi in southern Romania, television footage showed police officers in boats helping people escape their crumbling houses.
Across the river in Bulgaria, more than 100 people fled towns such as Nikopol, where half of the houses were partly submerged. Civil defence workers were preparing to evacuate hundreds more.
Floods in the Balkans last year drowned scores of people and destroyed houses, farmland and infrastructure worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Some communities whose homes were destroyed last year have been flooded again.
This year’s inundation follows a cold winter, which has seen eastern Europe and the Balkans covered in snow for months. There was severe flooding in much of Germany and the Czech Republic this month after a thaw and heavy rain.
The Danube is now flowing at more than twice the normal volume for April. Daniel Nedialkov, the head of the Danube Commission, which manages navigation on the river, said: ”It’s incredible. It’s the first time in the history of our great river.” – Guardian Unlimited Â