Rampaging river forces thousands of Czechs to flee capital

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Tens of thousands of Czechs fled their historic capital for higher ground Tuesday as torrential rains turned the Vltava River into a menacing cascade and unleashed more flooding that has now killed at least 88 people across Europe.

Churning toward Prague's Old Town, the heart of the capital and a popular tourist stop, the brown, swollen Vltava inflicted the worst flooding in more than a century on the Czech Republic. Officials said at least nine people died after more than a week of heavy rainfall.

Water engulfed Prague's historic Kampa island, flooding architectural gems dating to the Hapsburg Empire. Volunteers gathered around landmarks and scrambled to fill hundreds of sandbags in a desperate bid to save the city's treasures from rising waters.

At least 40,000 residents of low-lying areas of Prague -- a city of just over 1 million inhabitants -- were ordered to leave their homes Tuesday, and a total of 200,000 were evacuated nationwide, Interior Minister Stanislav Gross said.

The 340-room Intercontinental Hotel and the Four Seasons Hotel evacuated their guests at the peak of the summer tourist season.

But by 9 p.m. Tuesday, the threat to the Old Town appeared to be easing.

Watching the water

Czech television said the Vltava was expected to rise only by another foot, and Jan Buergermeister, the official in charge of the area, said even triple that would affect only the evacuated areas.

Weather forecasters in Prague were calling for the rains to move east, away from the capital, and diminish in intensity in the near future.

Emergency workers cleared bridges of hundreds of people watching the rising waters, but many tourists ignored the call to evacuate.

"This is a quite different experience than I thought I would get," said Mike McCloskey, 20, a student from Philadelphia who photographed volunteers building a barrier along the road leading to the river.

In neighboring Austria, where at least seven people have died, firefighters and Red Cross volunteers were stacking sandbags to hold back parts of the swollen Danube River, which flooded Vienna's port and some low-lying streets.

The Defense Ministry said 8,000 soldiers were battling floods in Upper Austria and along the Danube.

The flooding affected an estimated 60,000 Austrians, who either were evacuated from their homes or suffered flood damage, authorities said.

In Salzburg province, more than 1,000 buildings were under water.