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The Danube begins to subside and Budapest escapes floods
BUDAPEST, 2013, 10 June (Reuters / EP)
The Hungarian capital is outside the danger of floods of the Danube River, which reached record levels in Budapest at night, and has begun to subside, according to the mayor.
The floods have forced tens of thousands to flee their homes during the last week in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. At least a dozen people have died as a result of flooding.
Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlós, said in a press conference late on Sunday from one of the levees built with thousands of sandbags, the river reached 8.91 meters tall on Sunday, surpassing the record of 8.6 meters in the 2006 floods.
"Thank God the river has begun to subside, and I have to report no catastrophe," said Tarlós.
The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said in the same press conference that at least 20,000 people had worked all day stacking thousands of sandbags along the entire Danube to strengthen its defenses, and that the focus of danger happen to the stretch of the river south of Budapest.
"In regard to the section south of Budapest, the order is still the same as that applied to the entire north: not abandon any dam," he said.
In Hungary, at least 1,300 people in 34 cities and towns have been forced to flee their homes and 44 roads have been closed due to flooding, authorities said Sunday.
Parliament is expected to extend Monday the extreme danger state announced last week, as it is anticipated that the area south of the Danube reach record levels in the next few days.
Budapest citizens expressed their relief that the worst was over. "I do not envy those who have had to be evacuated. The river seemed very stubborn, very creepy (...) Fortunately he is sending" said Bence Abonyi, 18, as she walked along an embankment that had been closed and flooded.
