Around 120 people in the north-eastern Czech Republic were evacuated overnight as river waters fed by heavy rains began to sweep through their towns and villages, officials said Friday, according to DPA. "Some have returned already but others still remain outside their homes," said Ludek Volek, mayor of Mesto Albrechtice, a town of 3,600 where the floods forced dozens to leave their homes. "They are in a school gym. We gave them breakfast and blankets." On some rivers, torrential rains fuelled the so-called 20-year and 50-year floods overnight, said Sarka Vlckova, a spokeswoman for the Odra River Watershed. Despite sandbagging, the waters have flooded and in some cases damaged local roads, houses and gardens. "No building will have to be torn down, but around 50 houses were hit by water and mud," Volek said of the situation in his town where the river rose from its usual 60 centimetres to a peak of 237. While river levels began to drop Friday in the Jeseniky mountains where firefighters started to pump water from flooded houses, continuing rain was raising river levels in Beskydy and the city of Ostrava, Vlckova added. Flood alarms have been also issued further south in central Moravia where some rivers overflowed Friday. The north-eastern Czech Republic was last hit by catastrophic floods 10 years ago.
