Poland and Slovakia battle floods, more evacuated (Roundup)

Jun 4, 2010, 16:19 GMT

Warsaw/Bratislava - Hundreds of people were evacuated in Poland and Slovakia amid renewed flooding on Thursday and Friday.

Hundreds of people, including two schools and a retirement home, were evacuated in the town of Bardejov in Slovakia's north-east, firefighters said. Evacuations were also under way in Presov, the region's capital.

Heavy rains fed rivers under the Tatra mountains in northern Slovakia, flooding towns, including parts of Kezmarok, and forcing people to evacuate their homes.

The high waters also hit Slovakia's south, where at least 150 people from several villages near the town of Lucenec were evacuated overnight, firefighters said.

An extensive mud slide resulting from the flooding heavily damaged some 20 homes and a new road in Nizna Mysla in eastern Slovakia, the TA3 news channel reported. The station aired images of new houses with severely cracked walls.

Some 300 people were evacuated from Tarnobrzeg, southern Poland, and surrounding areas on Thursday night after a flood barrier broke on the Vistula River. Several thousand more would need to be evacuated, local officials said.

The waters broke through areas that had already suffered when the floods first began two weeks ago, after days of heavy rain in southern Poland.

Two thousand people were to be evacuated in the city of Sandomierz, southern Poland. The city's mayor decided Thursday to evacuate the right bank of the city. A local official said the area was threatened because some 10 metres of needed flood barriers had not been built in time and water began entering the city.

Some 150 residents of Piaseczno, a town some 15 kilometres outside Warsaw, were evacuated Friday by boat as a street there came under water.

A landslide in Ursynow, a southern district of Warsaw, prompted eight evacuations and a street closure there.

The town of Jaslo, southeastern Poland, came under threat Friday after some 40 metres of flood barriers broke nearby. Officials there said several thousand would need to be evacuated, but that so far most had not left their homes.

Some 30 homes were destroyed in the village of Klodno, southwestern Poland, and 434 people there were evacuated. In Winiary, central Poland, water destroyed several homes and 70 people had to be evacuated.

The lower levels of two hospitals and a metro station in southern Warsaw, meanwhile, were left under water Thursday after a heavy downpour.