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Over the last 15 years, the Czech Republic has experienced more floods than in the whole of the 20th century. In 1997, flooding devastated parts of Moravia; five years later, the west of the country, including the capital Prague, were inundated. The country has also experienced a series of local flash floods which caused serious damage. Leading Czech climatologist Radim Tolasz says Czechs should brace themselves for more floods to come in what he calls central Europe’s wet period.

Although Prague has largely been spared since flooding began in the Czech Republic on Sunday, other places have not been so lucky. One such spot is Zálezlice. A village of 400 inhabitants north of the capital, it was one of the symbols of the catastrophic floods of 2002 and has this week was inundated again.

Thousands of households in Bohemia remain without electricity on Tuesday as a result of the floods after technicians disconnected dozens of transformer stations in central Bohemia, Prague and other regions. Gas supplies have also been turned off in areas from which people have been evacuated.

Following days of flooding, the minister of agriculture, Petr Bendl, ordered a reduction in the flow of water from a dam system in southern Bohemia on Tuesday. A ministry official said if the move were not taken, waters would breach defences in Ústí nad Labem and inundate much of the North Bohemian city. Officials say the River Labe is likely to culminate in Ústí nad Labem on Wednesday evening at a height of up to 11.5 metres, less than half a metre lower than the level seen during catastrophic floods in 2002. Around 6,000 people have been evacuated in the area and bridges and the local train station have been closed.

Eight people are now believed to have died in the floods. The latest victim is evidently a man whose body rescue workers fished out of the Malé Labe river in Strážné in the Trutnov district, east Bohemia. Four people who were washed away while rowing are still missing.

The acting mayor of Prague, Tomáš Hudeček, says the flood situation in the city has stabilised. Speaking after a meeting of the capital’s crisis committee on Tuesday, Mr. Hudeček said streams flowing into the River Vltava had receded. Officials said water levels had culminated in Prague at around 6 AM. In some parts of the city cleanup operations and the calculation of damages have begun. However, much of its underground rail network remains closed and the metro may not reopen fully until the end of the week.

Prime Minister Petr Nečas has pledged CZK 5.3 billion towards dealing with the impact of the floods. Speaking at the village of Zálezlice in central Bohemia, which was also devastated in 2002, Mr. Nečas said most of the money would come from this year’s budget, while some would be found in a fund for road and rail infrastructure. He said the country would also seek help from the EU’s Solidarity Fund and has discussed the matter with senior officials from Saxony, which has also suffered from flooding. Meanwhile, public collections have gathered around CZK 3 million for victims.

In 2002, Prague Zoo was one of a number of key Prague sites devastated by flooding. A little over ten years later, the zoo again was not spared. Despite improvements in prevention and preparation, its lower levels are once again under water. Damage to pavilions and the lower part of the site has already been estimated at more than 100 million. If confirmed, the figure is not far off the one posted eleven years ago.

Seven people lost their lives, more than 8,000 people left their homes behind, and thousands worked tirelessly for three days to prevent further damage and loss of life resulting from the wide-spread flooding across Bohemia. By Tuesday, only two extreme danger zones remained in the Czech Republic, and most of the waterways that had raged only hours before had subsided. That said, parts of North Bohemia are still expecting the worst to come as the Labe continues to rise.

The village of Vestec in the area of Nymburk east of Prague has been one of the worst-hit by flood waters: the evacuation of all 300-or-so-inhabitants began on Sunday and is continuing. Almost every building in the village has been swamped by water from the Mrlina and there is danger of additional flood water breaking through a nearby levee, which the mayor indicated would be catastrophic for the village. Vestec was hit by 50-year floods back in 2003; then, family wells were fouled by floodwater which required drinking water to be shipped in in cisterns for several years, he said.