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American Morning
Europe Flooding Death Toll Rises to 88
Aired August 14, 2002 - 07:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get to Europe now. A week of fierce storms, packing torrential rain has brought death and destruction across the continent. Germany and Austria, Russia and Romania, all have been hit hard throughout the week. Rising flood waters and violent winds have killed at least 88 people so far.
Two reports this morning, first from the Czech Republic, where Mike Hanna is standing by, and also in Passau, Germany, where CNN's Gaven Morris is with us as well.
Let's go to Gaven first in Germany.
Gaven -- good afternoon to you there.
GAVEN MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill.
In Passau here, the Old Town is still under water. This is a very historic town. It's a beautiful place. Many of the buildings hundreds and hundreds of years old, but at the moment, up to their ceilings of their first floor, they are full of water, and behind that is coming a whole lot of mud as well.
The Old Town is a little further along the Danube River here, and there, three rivers converged. That's really been the problem. Those rivers have all swollen. There has been so much rain around, and mud, water everywhere down there at the moment.
The good news, if there is good news here at the moment, is that here, if I step away, you can take a look at this street. This is along the riverbank of the Danube, and here, the buildings very much had water up to their ceilings. There are businesses all along here. It's a popular place for restaurants, for bars and for shops. And up to the ceilings they were, full of water.
It's just starting to come down now. It's dropped about 2 meters just really today. And for the first time, business people and homeowners are starting to get inside their premises to see just what lies before them, and it really is a meter and a meter-and-a-half of mud that will take a very long time to clear away.
The good news is it's stabilizing here. Unfortunately, to the north of here, in the city of Dresden in the state of Saxony in Germany, things are still very much a (UNINTELLIGIBLE). There is the River Elbe there, and it's expected to peak a little later on today.
Now, 30,000 people have been evacuated from the center of Elbe. Helicopters, boats, whatever they can find, being brought in to essentially try and get those people out of the way before the river peaks a little later on.
Six people already dead in that state -- six people already dead in that state. The authorities say, unfortunately, they are expecting more as this crisis there worsens -- Bill.
HEMMER: What a sight to return to. Gaven, thank you.
To Prague now and Mike Hanna, who is tracking things from there.
Mike -- what do you have?
MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Bill, we heard Gaven talking there about the Elbe River. Well the Vltava River comes of the Elbe. We heard there that the water is going down. The bad news here is that the water continues to come up. As the water comes down from the south towards the north here, it is continuing to rise, authorities tell us. You can just see the force of the water.
Now, this water is running 30 times as strongly. That's three, zero times as strongly as it does at the normal time this year. That's some 18,000 feet per second. That water is crashing into the bridge here.
The damage in the old city of Prague and in the area over this river from the old city known as the Jewish Quarter has been intense. The authorities struggling to contain this damage.
Behind me, as the camera pans, you see the National Assembly. That's where the Parliamentarian sit. Well, they have evacuated their building. The city mayor has evacuated his building.
Authorities expect this flood to peak in some four to five hours. Then it will be clear how extensive the damage is, very extensive damage already and the human cost intense. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, and the authorities still fear that the worst is to come -- Bill.
HEMMER: Mike Hanna reporting in Prague. Gaven Morris back in Passau, Germany.
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