Central Europe is reinforcing old dams and building new ones as it braces for record-breaking floods that have killed at least 23 people, UPI quoted officials as saying. Although high waters have begun to recede in parts of Austria and the Czech Republic, the swollen Danube River is rushing toward Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban cautioned Hungarians to prepare for "the biggest ever flood," The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Heavy rains across the region during the past week combined with a wet spring prompted the flooding, NPR reported. Officials are making plans to evacuate about 100,000 people along much of a 470-mile stretch of the Danube, with more than half of them possibly coming from Budapest, which the river cuts in two. The cargo port of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, has been left underwater by 9 feet of flood waters. The water began to recede before it could reach into the ancient section of the city. A number of cities along the Elbe River in Germany are preparing for flooding water three times the normal level moves from Dresden to Hamburg. Czech insurers association CAP said damage from the past week's flood in the Czech Republic could amount to $387 million, while an association of chambers of commerce expected damage in Germany to come to about $14.6 billion.
