Heavy rains caused flooding in the northeastern Czech Republic, southern Poland and Hungary today in which at least four people died, according to AP. Czech police said a 69-year-old woman drowned in the town of Trinec, 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Prague. In Poland, a man fell into the Koszarawa River late Sunday and drowned, said Jozef Pietraszko, deputy commander of the Zywiec firefighters. His body was found 1 1/2 miles (2 kilometers) downstream. Polish firefighters also discovered the body of a 60-year-old woman floating in a creek in southern Poland. She had been missing since Sunday. Officials in Hungary described the situation in the northeastern county of Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen as «catastrophic.» One man died Saturday in the flooding and more than 2,000 people have been evacuated or rescued from their homes. In the town of Szikszo, 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of the Hungarian capital of Budapest, more than 40 patients had to be moved to higher floors when the ground floor of the Ferenc Rakoczi II Hospital was flooded and the building surrounded by water, hospital director Sandor Tiba said. Despite the flooding of the nearby Vadasz stream, the hospital remained open. The main roads to Szikszo were under water, as were many other roads in the area. Authorities evacuated patients from a hospital in the Czech town of Bohumin, where several neighborhoods were submerged. Hundreds of people have been evacuated in the Czech Republic and thousands are without electricity. Some 400 people have been evacuated from their homes south of Krakow and Katowice in Poland. A number of Czech roads and railway lines were closed as rivers burst their banks on Monday. Authorities warned that the rain would continue in all three countries, and Polish firefighters prepared to evacuate another 1,500 people.
