FLOODS IN EUROPE REVIVE MEMORIES OF 2002

Flooding hit southern and eastern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic over the weekend, evoking memories of the floods in the summer of 2002. A worker onvolved in a clean-up in Austria was killed in a mudslide in St Johann, near Salzburg, with two others reported missing. In Germany at least four people were reported killed. Chemnitz in the east and Passau and Rosenheim in the south issued disaster warnings. Passau was underwater yesterday and its mayor said that water levels could rise higher than those experienced in 2002. Residents in the eastern cities of Greiz, Zwickau and Grimma have been evacuated. Rail services between Munich and Salzburg were suspended, while shipping was halted on stretches of the Rhine, the Main and the Neckar. In the Czech Republic two deaths were reported after their cottage collapsed, while three more people are missing. Water levels on the River Vltava could cause flooding in Prague, according to Czech officials. In Switzerland a section of a motorway was closed due to flooding, and officials said that landslides remained a risk. The floods of 2002 caused in excess of $1bn in insured losses, with the Czech Republic alone incurring losses of more than $500m.