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Due to extensive damages resulting from the floods that hit the region a week ago, a total of four train routes in the Liberec region will remain out of service. Trains connecting Liberec with the town of Frýdlant, which was badly affected by the floods, will not start running again until the end of September. Other routes will resume service this week. Autobuses serving the region have also been discontinued but are slowly starting operating again.

The governor of the flood-stricken Liberec region, Stanislav Eichler, has assured locals that the army, fire crews and police would continue to help out for as long as necessary. He made the statement in response to roumours that the army was withdrawing its men now that the worst was over. There are currently over 1,000 soldiers helping with demolition work and road repairs and police re-enforcements from around the country are patrolling the area to prevent looting. Thousands of homes in the Liberec region remain uninhabitable after last weekend’s devastating flash floods and the army is building provisional bridges to open the way for trucks bringing emergency supplies.

Severe night storms in the eastern part of the country have damaged property and uprooted trees causing transport problems. Hailstones and high winds damaged roofs and glass houses and fire crews were repeatedly called to deal with fallen trees on roads and private property. In the early hours of Saturday a train hit a steel construction from an overhead bridge which may have been loosened by the storm. Fortunately the train was not derailed and no one was hurt in the incident.

Power and gas suppliers to the flooded Liberec region have called off a state of emergency during which time their employees worked around the clock restoring supplies to flooded homes. Power has now been restored to most households and the region’s main gas supplier RWE says that by the end of this weekend only around 500 homes will be without gas. In the wake of the floods more than 4,000 people were cut off from both gas and electricity supplies.

Czechs have donated over 20 million crowns in aid to flood victims and more contributions come in every day, the country’s leading humanitarian organizations report. People in Need, ADRA, the Czech Catholic Charity and the Red Cross have all set up special accounts and are taking in donations via phone mail. Truck-loads of humanitarian aid head for the flooded region every day carrying dryers, shovels, hygiene products and other basic necessities for the clean-up operation. Many people have used part of their annual paid leave to help with the clean-up work.

Meanwhile, north-western regions of the country are on high flood alert as water levels rise anew. Thousands of homes in the Liberec region remain uninhabitable after last weekend’s devastating flash floods which claimed five lives and caused billions of crowns in damages. Clean-up work has had to be put on hold and the locals are scrambling to make secure what they can. A belt of rain moving across the country is expected to bring several days of persistent rain and the water-logged ground is no longer able to soak up more rain water. The town of Ustí nad Labem was flooded on Friday with the authorities reporting extensive damages. As water levels rise people have been warned to stay off the country’s rivers, after a 16 year-old-girl drowned on a canoeing trip last weekend.

Three Polish nationals who were caught looting in the flooded areas this week remain in detention, the CTK news agency reports. All three have a criminal record and had previously been caught looting in Poland as well. In view of the fact that the transgression happened during a state of emergency they will face higher sentences than usual –with a maximum ceiling of eight years. Police are still searching for a man who robbed one of the flooded homes under the guise of a volunteer aid worker.

Visiting the flood-stricken region, Agriculture Minister Ivan Fuksa said neither the state nor municipalities should continue to fund the reconstruction of homes that have been repeatedly flooded. He said the authorities should encourage people to move to safer ground, even at the cost of losing money in the process. One option currently being discussed is that the State Land Fund would provide people in high risk areas with new plots of land to build on – in exchange for the plots they now own. The state and insurance companies would help flood victims fund the construction of new homes instead of repeatedly paying for flood damage and emergency aid.

Czech public television has announced that it will extend its analog broadcasts to north Bohemia beyond August 31 in view of the floods which have left thousands of families in financial difficulties. A spokesman for Czech TV said that in view of the crisis the planned transition to digital and satellite broadcasts exclusively would take place at a later date.

People in the north-western regions of the country are scrambling to secure their homes after meteorologists warned they could be hit by fresh floods in the coming days. Thousands of homes in the Liberec region remain uninhabitable after last weekend’s devastating flash floods which claimed five lives and caused billions of crowns in damages. A belt of rain moving across the country is now likely to put at risk the Plzen, Liberec and Ustí nad Labem regions with meteorologists predicting persistent rain and high winds for several days. As water levels rise people have been warned to stay off the country’s rivers, after a 16 year-old-girl drowned on a canoeing trip last weekend.