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CNN Live Today

In Europe, Record Flooding Forces Largest Evacuation Since WWII

Aired August 15, 2002 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: First to Europe, where record flooding has forced the largest evacuation since World War II. More than 30,000 people in the historic German city of Dresden have sought higher ground.
We begin there with CNN's Gaven Morris.

Hi there, Gaven.

GAVEN MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, how are you? What I can tell you is there is a developing situation here now. All day the citizens of Dresden have been waiting for this River Elbe to reach its peak. Now it's been frustrating slow in rising, but now it seems to be getting quicker, and it is coming at a rate of naught.

What I can tell you is as of last night, I was about 17 meters behind me -- that's where I was doing the reports from last night. That is where the water is now, and it's coming quite quickly, more quickly than we've seen during the day.

I just want to show you something over here, if you want to come with me, what happened now is that they are building a new defense here in the center of Dresden. All of the citizens, troops, police have come out, and they are building this new sandbag wall, because just behind us here, there is a part of the riverbank that the water is only 15 centimeters maybe away from breaking over.

If that happens, and the water gets through in park, it gets to the center of old town of Dresden.

So we are very much in a emergency situation here, and authorities have pretty much given up predicting what will happen with this river level and when it will come, so it's a waiting game, but they're building this wall, hoping it will build it back -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Let me ask you, here in the states, we are accustomed to emergency evacuation centers that are set up perhaps in some schools, American Red Cross often pitches in. In the case of the flooding there, 30,000 people evacuated, where are people going? How are they being accommodated?

MORRIS: There are all sorts of options for them, schools, community halls here, too, like the U.S., are being employed in this crisis to take all the people that are being taken out of their suburbs, and as you say, that has stepped up today. More and more people taken out of their homes holes to those centers. Also there has been a situation with the hospitals today where four of the hospitals, the main hospitals in Dresden, have been emptied. Now those patients are being taken wherever they need to go. If they're intensive care patients, airlifted to Berlin or some of the bigger cities. If they are ordinary patients, to some of the more regional hospitals nearby. But certainly all stops being pulled to accommodate those found without a place to be -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Gaven Morris in Dresden, thank you very much.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Another worry for folks along the Elbe River is the contamination from a chlorine leak. It happened at a chemical plant upstream, damaged by the flooding around Prague.

CNN's Mike Hanna joins us from the capital of the Czech Republic with the latest on the situation -- Mike.

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Martin, while that river is still rising down where Gaven Morris is. Up here, it is beginning to drop. In the course of the day, the level of the water has dropped between seven and 12 feet. And this is good news indeed for the rescue workers and those attempting to contain the situation.

As you say, there was a report earlier on in the day of a chemical factory just downriver from here, about 50 miles down the river, being flooded, and stranded ground tanks holding chlorine were breached. There was a scare there. There was talk of evacuation, but however, at this stage, it appears that that situation has stabilized and the level of chlorine being released from those tanks not of harmful levels.

But back here in Prague, now after the flood is beginning to drop. Now the real task begins to assess the damage, what has been happening here around the river and the bridges along. There you see a group of firefighters, other rescue workers, police officers. The tall man with the silver hair is one of the engineers, who within the last few minutes was hoisted over edge the bridge for a very close inspection. He moved along the bridge at the spot (ph), a couple of feet above the water, checking exactly what damage there has been.

Now this is just to give an indication of how difficult this task is going to be. This will be done at all of the bridges along the river, and those who know Prague know that there are a lot of bridges crossing the river.

And also every single building, they've got to assess a structural damage, not only from the water, but from the damage done by underground water, seeping beneath the buildings, and creating major problems to the structure itself, not just the physical building. So that is what is going on now.

As well, tens and thousands of people still waiting to hear whether they can begin to return home, and that may take days, if not up to three weeks -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: Mike, two quick questions for you. How quickly are the floodwaters expect to recede, and then on top of that, what could be the long-term implications, the forecast? Any more rain expected?

HANNA: Well, the floodwaters are receding at different times in different places. Some areas are now virtually dry. Other areas, there are still large amounts of water, particularly in cellars and basements that have to be pumped out. No approximation as to how long the procedure will take. In terms of the long-term cost, well, the Czech authorities are talking about billions of dollars.

They have no idea whatsoever what it is going to cost, not only in terms of restoring all of the damaged historical buildings and paving stones and cobbles and streets, but also in terms of what it will cost the economy, in terms of a drop in tourism. All these factors have to be taken into account before the full cost is counted.

SAVIDGE: And is there any talk, Mike, of blame? the reason I bring that up is there has been talk in the United States of people in Czechoslovakia and elsewhere where in Europe, blaming the United States for not ratifying the Kyoto Agreement, saying that because of that, the environmental conditions persist that created the rain that caused the headaches?

HANNA: Well, it's too early for that type of debate to start, Martin. That kind of debate has been very prevalent within Eastern Europe, indeed within all of Europe. However, most experts have been saying, and it has been reported here widely that these floods cannot necessarily be directly allocated to the fact of global warming. Therefore, the U.S.' Resistance to the Kyoto protocol is not really a factor in all of this.

This is also emphasized by the fact that a hundred years ago, a flood of these dimensions occurred, and so Prague and the rest of the region is not unused to the floods. What is different this time is the absolutely intensity of it. And according to most experts, although they are still being reviewed, that it has to do with a series of freak weather conditions and movements of weather fronts, rather than a wider aspect of global warming.

SAVIDGE: Mike Hanna, thanks very much for keeping it in perspective for us. We will keep in touch with you.

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