Rising rivers threaten southern Poland as flooding recedes elsewhere in Central Europe

Soldiers and volunteers in southwestern Poland have laid sandbags near swollen rivers around the city of Wrocław to protect homes and businesses after days of flooding across Central Europe.

Along with Austria, the Czech Republic and Romania, Poland has been hit hard by floods following record rains in the region that began last Thursday.

Authorities have reported 23 deaths, with seven each in Poland and Romania, five in Austria and four in the Czech Republic.

The fourth death in the Czech Republic was reported on Wednesday when police said they found the body of a 70-year-old woman who was swept away by waters on Sunday in the town of Kobylá nad Vidnavkou near the town of Jeseník, located in the badly hit northeast.

The weather has since improved, with warm and sunny conditions in the Czech Republic, Poland and elsewhere. Water levels were falling in some places, allowing authorities and residents to clean up debris.

Firefighters in Poland have been pumping water out of flooded streets and basements. But some areas are still under threat — particularly in southwestern Poland.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has held crisis meetings in Wrocław with local officials and rescue services, urging protective measures and saying his government would help those affected.

Soldiers and residents in Marcinkowice, near Wrocław, laid sandbags near a bridge over the Oława River, whose waters flow into the Oder, the major river that rises in the Czech Republic and runs north through Poland to Germany.

The community leader of the town of Oława, Artur Piotrowski, described the situation as difficult. He told the Polish state news agency PAP that two villages in a low-lying area have been flooded since Monday and residents have refused to evacuate.

Thousands of Polish soldiers were in action. Some evacuated people and animals from flood-affected areas and distributed food and drinking water. The army also posted on X on Wednesday that it had set up a field hospital in the town of Nysa after patients had to be evacuated from a hospital there earlier this week.

Soldiers have built a temporary bridge in the town of Głuchołazy to replace one that was washed away by the flooding. Residents in another flood-damaged town, Stronie Śląskie, have appealed to Tusk to send someone to take charge of cleanup and recovery efforts, saying they have so far been chaotic and inefficient.

Experts have been preparing for flood threats due to the cresting Oder River in Opole, a city of some 130,000 residents, which seems to have avoided any major flooding, and in Wrocław, home to about 640,000 residents, which suffered disastrous flooding in 1997.

The European Union's head office said on Wednesday that the floods in Central Europe and the deadly wildfires in Portugal are joint proof of a "climate breakdown" that can only be mitigated with drastic action.