Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis has blamed climate change for the ‘dramatic consequences’ of Storm Boris which has devastated vast swathes of central Europe – as seven people have been killed following torrential rain
The flooding has brought a month’s worth of rain in just 24 hours across Poland, Romania, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, along with heavy winds.
A firefighter died in a flooded basement, during a flood rescue mission in Tullin, a town in an Austrian province declared a disaster zone, while four people were killed in south eastern Romania in the worst-affected region, Galati, where 5,000 homes were damaged.
Emil Dragomir, the mayor of Slobozia Conachi, a village in Galati, told reporters: ‘This is a catastrophe of epic proportions.’
Iohannis identified the climate crisis as a major cause of Storm Boris as hundreds of people have been rescued across 19 regions of Romania.
‘We are again dealing with the effects of climate change, which are increasingly present throughout the European continent, with dramatic consequences on people.’
Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis
‘We must continue to strengthen our capacity to anticipate extreme weather phenomena,’ the Romanian president said. ‘Severe floods that have affected a large part of the country have led to loss of lives and significant damage.
‘We are again dealing with the effects of climate change, which are increasingly present throughout the European continent, with dramatic consequences on people.’
Climate Changes
Scientists say it’s well established that extreme rainfall is more common and more intense because of human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, particularly in Europe, most of Asia, central and eastern North America, and parts of South America, Africa and Australia. This is because warmer air can hold more water vapour.
Flooding has become more frequent and severe in these locations as a result, but is also affected by human factors, such as the existence of flood defences and land use.
Two reasons why Storm Boris has been so destructive are moisture pulled up from the Black Sea’s exceptionally warm seas and the Mediterranean combined with chilly air from the north, while there is a low-pressure area that is caught between high pressure to the east and west in a blocked weather pattern.
2023: A Year of Catastrophic Climate Emergencies Climate experts have identified human-caused climate breakdown as supercharging extreme weather across the world, driving more frequent and more deadly disasters from heatwaves to floods to wildfires.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that one person drowned in the Klodzko region where 1,600 people have been evacuated and 17,000 are without power.
Polish authorities have called in the army to support firefighters.
The Reach of Storm Boris
In Glucholazy, Poland’s south western Opole region, people were urged to scramble to higher ground after a river burst its banks and began to flood the town. Mayor Paweł Szymkowicz said: ‘We are drowning.’
While in the country’s second largest city Krakow, sandbags were offered as a way to protect homes.
Across the Czech Republic, Storm Boris has left 50,000 homes without power in the north with police reporting that four people are missing.
Three were in a car that was swept into a river in the north eastern town of Lipova-Lazne, and another man was reported missing after being swept away by floods in the south east.
Austria’s Tyrol region was blanketed by up to a metre of snow – an exceptional situation for mid-September, which saw temperatures of up to 30C last week
A dam in the south of the country also burst its banks, flooding towns and villages downstream.
The flood barriers have been raised in the capital of Prague and the embankments of the River Vltava closed to the public as Storm Boris continued to rage.
In other exceptional weather incidents areas of Austria’s Tyrol region were blanketed by up to a metre of snow – an exceptional situation for mid-September, which saw temperatures of up to 30C last week.
Rail services were suspended in the country’s east early today and several metro lines were shut down in the capital Vienna, where the Wien river was threatening to overflow its banks.
Firefighters have intervened around 150 times in Vienna to clear roads blocked by storm debris and pump water from cellars, local media reported.
In total, 24 villages in the Lower Austria province have been declared as disaster zones with evacuation orders being made since Sunday September 15th, while Slovakia has declared a state of emergency in the capital, Bratislava
