Storm Boris rages on in eastern and central Europe The storm, now in its second day, has triggered floods, unusually strong winds and torrential rains across areas of Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Heavy rainfall began lashing central Europe on Friday as the slow-moving low-pressure system arrived, and it is expected to linger for days. Storm Boris has brought a month’s worth of rain in just 24 hours to swathes of Poland, Romania, Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary, along with fierce winds. Romanian president on Saturday acknowledged that they were reeling under the effects of the increasing impact of the climate crisis. “We are again facing the effects of climate change, which are increasingly present on the European continent, with dramatic consequences,“ he said. Authorities said on Saturday that the rainfall figures for the past 24 hours were the heaviest in 100 years. In Poland and the Czech Republic, rivers burst their banks and several areas were under the deluge of water. In Klodzko county in southwest Poland 1,600 people were evacuated. Several municipalities were reeling under floods after rivers broke record high levels after days of heavy rainfall. In southern Poland, authorities issued evacuation orders for homes in Glucholazy, a historic town near the Czech border, after the Biala Glicholaska River surged by two meters (6.5 feet) overnight into Saturday. More than 100,000 firefighters have been deployed in the Czech Republic as the authorities received nearly 2,900 incident reports on Friday, mostly related to fallen trees and flooding. Almost 50,000 homes reported power outages on Saturday. While neighbouring Slovakia ordered a state of emergency in the capital, Bratislava, Austria has been pummelled by heavy rains, causing the rivers to swell. Parts of the southern and eastern states in Germany are also flooded, with warnings in place for rivers in the state of Saxony. Heavy rains are expected to continue until at least Monday in the Czech Republic and Poland.
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