Train operations have been seriously impacted, while emergency teams continued their efforts throughout the affected areas, news outlets reported.
Several fatalities have been reported in the flood-affected areas of Poland, particularly in the southwestern regions.
Victims include a man from Krosnowice in Kłodzko County (located near the Czech border in Lower Silesia), a man found near a stream in Bielsko-Biała (in the southern part of Poland, near the Czech and Slovak borders), and a woman found in a flooded building in Nowy Świętów, Nysa County (situated in southwestern Poland).
According to information from Polish Radio's IAR news agency, a well-known local doctor has been found dead in the southwestern town of Nysa (a town near the Polish-Czech border).
The body of the 71-year-old surgeon was discovered by firefighters, with the circumstances surrounding his death still under investigation.
The doctor, a prominent surgeon, was reported missing after his car was discovered abandoned, and he failed to return home.
“Unfortunately, he has passed away,” his son-in-law announced on social media. "Please pray for him."
Earlier Infrastructure Minister Dariusz Klimczak confirmed two flood-related fatalities to broadcaster TVN24.
“These figures are still coming in and being updated," Klimczak said.
"I hope there will be no more fatalities,” he added.
“I don’t want to either reassure anyone or frighten them unnecessarily, but this isn’t over yet; the threat remains, although I hope the worst is behind us,” he also said.
Floodwaters across Central Europe have claimed at least eight lives over the past two days, including four fatalities in Romania, and one in Austria, the Reuters news agency reported.
In the Czech Republic, where over 10,000 people have been evacuated, authorities were searching for three individuals whose car plunged into a river.
Torrential rain, caused by a low-pressure system named Boris, has led to widespread destruction, including damaged homes, bridges and power outages affecting hundreds of thousands of households across the region.
On Monday, another evacuation in Nysa will use military helicopters to transport patients from the county hospital, with around 60 critically ill individuals awaiting transfer, according to Polish officials.
The military is currently unable to proceed due to poor weather conditions, reporters were told, but medical rescue teams will be on board each of the three helicopters involved in the operation, which will move patients to a facility in the regional capital Opole.
State broadcaster TVP Info reported that water had flooded two floors of the hospital in Nysa in southwestern Poland.
The facility, which was housing around 80 patients, also experienced a power outage.
Rail disruptions due to flooding, landslides
Klimczak, the infrastructure minister, told the media that flooding in southern Poland has caused significant disruptions to the railway network.
Train services have been suspended on 18 sections of the rail network, he said, with a total of 82 passenger trains canceled across their entire routes. Changes have also been made to the routes of 79 trains.
Overnight, water inundated the tracks between Nysa and Brzeg in Poland's southwest, bringing train traffic to a complete standstill.
In the nearby Lower Silesia region, heavy rains similarly affected the rail service between Dzierżoniów Śląski and Mościsko Dzierżoniowskie.
Additionally, a landslide blocked the tracks between the southwestern town of Milicz and Zduny in the west-central Wielkopolska province.
Another landslide has reduced train traffic to a single track between Brzeszcze Jawiszowice in Małopolska and Czechowice-Dziedzice in Poland's southern Silesia region.
Due to flooding in southern Poland and the Czech Republic, Polish rail carrier PKP Intercity has suspended train services to the Czech Republic and halted international rail traffic between the two countries.
Some trains have been canceled or rerouted, and no replacement bus services are available, according to the Polish Consulate General in Ostrava, in the northeastern Czech Republic.
The Biała Głuchołaska River has flooded the town of Głuchołazy in Poland's southwest, Sept. 15, 2024. Photo: PAP/Michał Meissner.
(mp/gs)
Source: IAR/TVN24/Goniec.pl/TVP Info/Reuters
